STATEWIDE – Throughout American history, iconoclasts have thrived, eccentrics have flourished, and genius abounds. This week, NJN’s State of the Arts celebrates four creative giants who left their marks on American culture in American Originals. This encore presentation of American Originals airs on Friday, January 5 at 8:30 pm, with a rebroadcast on Wednesday, January 10 at 11:30 pm. State of the Arts marks twenty-five years on NJN this season. The program has earned 25 Regional Emmy Awards, including a 2006 Mid-Atlantic Emmy and a 2005 New York Emmy.

• Walt Whitman
2005 marked the 150th anniversary of the publication of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Self-published in 1855, Leaves of Grass charted a new path for poetry, with its organic, free verse, and its enigmatic proclamations of the United States as “the greatest poem.” The surprising success of the 1882 edition enabled Whitman to buy a house in Camden for $1,750 on Mickle Street (now Mickle Boulevard), where he lived for 19 years. State of the Arts producer Susan Wallner visits the house as she explores the importance of place, specifically Camden, in Whitman’s poetry through interviews with scholars and excerpts from Whitman’s writings.

• Edward Weston
One of the masters of twentieth-century photography, Weston was featured in Edward Weston: A Legacy, at the Montclair Museum in 2005 with 80 photographs. His name evokes images of anthropomorphic still lifes, striking nudes, dramatic coastal landscapes, and stark dunes that embody his brilliant compositions, sharp focus, and exquisite tonalities of the Straight Photography movement. State of the Arts producer Amber Edwards focuses on the work created during Weston’s “Guggenheim Project.” The first photographer to receive a Guggenheim, Weston used the award for an ambitious road tour, during which he began to experiment with landscape as never before. Whether in the canyons of Death Valley, the snowfields of Yosemite, or the forests of the Pacific Northwest, these travels had a liberating, energizing effect on Weston and his work.

• Harry Partch
One of America’s most innovative and individualistic composers, Partch drew young admirers who lined up around the block to hear his New York concerts in the 1960s and 70s. He invented his own unique tuning system based on dividing the octave into 43 small intervals. Western music had always used a 12-tone scale. He also invented dozens of unusual instruments made from everyday materials that can play these pitches. Partch’s entire collection of instruments is now housed at Montclair State University, where Partch’s protégé Dean Drummond looks after them and uses them for teaching and performances. State of the Arts producer Eric Schultz visited Drummond for a demonstration of the remarkable instrument collection and a performance of Partch’s 1952 musical drama Oedipus

.• In Search of Alexander
Renowned organist and teacher, Alexander McCurdy was the head of the organ departments at both the famed Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Westminster Choir College in Princeton for more than forty years. Although he retired more than 35 years ago and died more than 20 years ago, his students still imitate his mannerisms, extol his deep impact and recount favorite stories about their influential teacher. On May 13, 2005, Westminster celebrated McCurdy’s 100th birthday with a day of concerts at the Princeton University Chapel and Westminster’s Bristol Chapel. McCurdy students from around the world converged for the celebration. State of the Arts producer Eric Schultz, who is also Alexander McCurdy’s grandson, looks back at his grandfather’s legacy.

State of the Arts, the award-winning, half-hour arts magazine, airs every Friday at 8:30 pm, followed by an encore presentation each Wednesday at 11:30 pm. The current episode of State of the Arts can be viewed online at www.njn.net. Individual stories will be available to view following their broadcast by visiting the program online at State of the Arts.

Funding for State of the Arts is provided by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. The series producer is Susan Wallner and the executive producer is Nila Aronow.

NJN is available on all New Jersey cable systems, satellite systems, and Time Warner Cable channel 750 in NYC.
State of the Arts is also available via video streaming at njn.net after the original broadcast.
Additionally, the program is repeated on NJN’s JerseyVision available on Comcast Digital Cable in New Jersey.
(Check http://www.njn.net/digital/schedule.html for detailed listings.)
NJN – Uniquely New Jersey
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