National Endowment for the Arts

Latest Articles

Imagine there's no culture

Voids
A Providence coalition of art organizations dubbed Culture Stops is calling for arts stoppages across the country on March 10 to model the potential effects of slashed government arts funding. Their slogan: "Witness a world devoid of creativity, imagination and thought."
By GREG COOK | March 02, 2011

After images

Karen Finley does Jackie
Karen Finley won’t be naked, or covered in chocolate. Candied yams will not be involved. If there are neighborhood morality-watch squads in Salem, they’ll have the night off.
By JIM SULLIVAN | May 28, 2010

New stuff

Pacific Northwest Ballet, Twyla Tharp, and much more in New York
One thing that impressed me was that dance invention seems to be making a comeback as a major challenge for young choreographers after years of being stirred into the multimedia stew.
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | January 19, 2010

Is the American Dream a nightmare?

Action Speaks!
Action Speaks!, AS220's panel discussion series, continues with a topic near and dear to us here in little Rhody — failure.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | April 29, 2009

The shovel-ready lessons of the New Deal

Action speaks!
Action Speaks!, AS220's always-engaging panel discussion series, is back. "So soon?" you ask. Why, yes.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | April 22, 2009

Play by Play: April 10, 2009

Plays A to Z
Plays around town
By CAROLYN CLAY | April 08, 2009

Play by play: April 3, 2009

Plays A to Z
Plays around town
By CAROLYN CLAY | April 01, 2009

Play by Play: March 27, 2009

Plays A to Z
A compilation of theater productions in and around Boston
By CAROLYN CLAY | March 24, 2009

Play by Play: March 20, 2009

Plays A to Z
A compilation of theater productions in and around Boston
By CAROLYN CLAY | March 18, 2009

The whiff of art

Heide Hatry, Misaki Kawai, Andrew Mowbray, and William Pope.L
The stench came from the rotting corpse — well, it appeared to be a corpse — of a woman who'd been laid out on a metal table like an exhumed murder victim awaiting a coroner's examination.
By GREG COOK | March 03, 2009

With friends like these

Obama should worry less about befriending the GOP and more about keeping his own party in line
Warren Harding was obviously not one of our greatest presidents. But during his little more than two years in the White House, he did offer some shrewd insights into life at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
By STEVEN STARK | February 06, 2009

Stepping out

Island Moving Co.’s Open for Dancing
Appropriately titled Open for Dancing , this event brings in three choreographers to do site-specific dances at three Newport spots, in collaboration with artists.
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | September 17, 2008

Yaddo and MacDowell: Works in Progress

Alone again, artistically: A glimpse of what it’s like to be present at the creation
This article originally appeared in the July 18, 1978 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
By D.C. DENISON | July 24, 2008

Beethoven summer

At the Bowdoin International Music Festival
The only music festival in Maine to be mentioned in the New York Times "Summer Stages" segment, this spectacular music fest can be appreciated by classical connoisseurs and novices alike.
By EMILY PARKHURST | June 18, 2008

The folk and the fine

‘Keepers of Tradition’ and Alexis Rockman
Here in Massachusetts, our old ways tend to reside in ethnic islands and pockets. They may be famous on their street or in their neighborhood or town, but they’re often unheard of outside it.
By GREG COOK | June 16, 2008

Paint by numbers

Three Tall Women at the Lyric; 7 Blowjobs from Theatre on Fire
Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women are really one tall woman, and she’s a tall order.
By CAROLYN CLAY | April 01, 2008

Stepping stones

Tudor and Limón at Boston Conservatory
The dance is large and sweeping, the music (by an unnamed recorded chorus and organist) majestic.
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | February 25, 2008

Political art

The know-nothing Bush administration makes one more attack on the arts. What you can do and why you should do it.
Tucked inside President Bush’s stinker of a 2009 budget are a series of proposals that would shamefully cut funding for the arts.
By EDITORIAL | February 13, 2008

Big ideas for the arts

Is this a soapbox or someone’s installation piece?
Almost every young artist I know pays the bills by selling tourists stuff from a retail shop or getting their peers drunk at bars, selling a little bit of their soul while they're at it.
By IAN PAIGE | January 02, 2008

Stormy weather

Snow cleanup undermined by incompetents and flying monkeys
Phillipe + Jorge are not upset or disappointed that Governor Don “Laughing Boy” Carcieri was out of the country, in Iraq, during the recent winter storm imbroglio.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | December 19, 2007

Music industry unites to help Portland artists

Foundations
If Austin, Texas, is any indicator, in five years’ time, Portland’s music scene may be even more vibrant than it is today.
By JEFF INGLIS | September 19, 2007

Editors' picks: City life

Best uses for dead trees, best old-fashioned spoken word, best place to realize you have no game, and more
Spogga, Figments, Teamworks, and more.
By PROVIDENCE PHOENIX STAFF | January 25, 2010

Culture war games

Karen Finley moves on, ‘It’s Alive’ goes after bio-tech, ‘Personal Computer’ gets Webby
Karen Finley sat at the edge of the stage of Emerson College’s Cutler Majestic Theatre last week and spoke about a woman who got off on war.
By GREG COOK | March 27, 2007

Everybody’s Irish

Quebecois ensemble Le Vent du Nord join PSO
On the heels of Saint Patrick’s Day, it’s fitting to blather about the Irish.
By BEN MEIKLEJOHN | March 21, 2007

It's a mitzvah

To attend the Maine Jewish Film Festival
The Maine Jewish Film Festival’s 10th-anniversary brochure is a glossy foldout suggesting a newer, bigger, better festival to come.
By KIRAH BROUILLETTE | March 14, 2007

George vs. George

Compare and contrast
President George W. Bush is the third man named George to hold the head office of our republic, after his father and George Washington.
By JEFF INGLIS | May 11, 2006

Finley provocatively pairs George and Martha

Culture watch
In the world according to Karen Finley, George W. Bush’s Oedipal complex propelled the US invasion of Iraq, and the infantile president carries on an imagined long-running affair with domestic diva Martha Stewart.
By IAN DONNIS | April 12, 2006