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Synchronicity
On NJN’s State of the Arts
Friday, December 28 at 8:30 pm; and Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 11:30 pm
STATEWIDE – Coming together in a magical moment of time and space — Synchronicity is the key to the stories on this episode of State of the Arts, featuring hand bell ringers, the art of printmaking, Hitchcock’s film scores, and a potter’s inspiration. Synchronicity airs on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 8:30 pm, with a rebroadcast on Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 11:30 pm. State of the Arts marks twenty-five years on NJN this year. The series has earned 28 Regional Emmy Awards, including New York Emmy Awards in 2007 and 2005, and Mid-Atlantic Emmys in 2007 and 2006.
• The Hand Bells at Westminster Choir College
State of the Arts producer Eric Schultz goes to a performance of the renowned hand bell choir at the Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ. Schultz then goes behind the scenes to see how the bells are made and how fourteen performers, each entrusted with not more than four pitches, manipulate the largest collection of hand bells in the world to perform extremely complex music. Schultz speaks with conductor Kathleen Ebling-Thorne, choir members, and bell manufacturer Malmark, Inc. president J.H. Malta, who holds over 20 U.S. Patents for his hand bell designs. While there are over 10 thousand bell choirs in churches throughout the United States, the virtuosic Westminster Concert Bell Choir is in a class by itself. They have performed many times on NBC's “Today Show,” have appeared on the PBS series “Mister Roger's Neighborhood,” and make annual concert tours throughout the country.
• Hitchcock's Music
Alfred Hitchcock understood — perhaps better than any director before or since — how sound and images work together to create fear, tension, relief, and drama. Over his long career he presided over more musical styles than any director in history and ultimately changed how we think about film music. "Hitchcock's Music," by Rider University professor Jack Sullivan, is the first book to fully explore the essential role music played in Hitchcock’s movies. The new book is the result of extensive interviews with composers, writers, and actors, as well as research in rare archives. It examines the director’s relationships with various composers, especially Bernard Herrmann, and tells the stories behind the musical decisions. Sullivan takes State of the Arts producer Amber Edwards on an audio tour of Hitchcock's most famous films, and shows us new ways to watch — and listen — to his movies.
• Bennett Bean
Ceramist Bennett Bean has traced his influences — ranging from Buddhism to Native American
pottery — to synchronous, defining moments in his life. He draws inspiration from his travels to places like Nepal, Burma, and Vietnam, where he’s soaked up the aesthetic climates that he pours into his work at his picturesque home studio in rural Blairstown, NJ. Earlier this year, some of Bean’s current work was on view at the Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville, NJ, in an exhibit called “Surface Rhythms.” State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa speaks with the Noyes Museum’s executive director Michael Cagno and visits Bean at his home, where the artist has been creating more than just his signature, highly sought-after clay vessels. He’s also designed the ultimate bulb trowel and produced rugs and carpets in Kathmandu from his designs — among other things.
• The Brodsky Center
State of the Arts producer Susan Wallner visits the Brodsky Center at Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts, formerly the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper. It was recently renamed in honor of its founder, Judith Brodsky, professor emerita of art, and her late husband. Every year, the Brodsky Center works with more than 20 emerging and established artists from various disciplines. The artists are teamed up with printmakers in a time-honored tradition to produce works created with lithographic, silkscreen, digital, handmade paper, and other media. In January 2007, a 20th annual exhibition featured work made by these artists, along with a gallery of work by Judith Brodsky, and works that were auctioned to benefit the center by distinguished artists such as Faith Ringgold, Chuck Close, Will Barnet, and others. Wallner interviews quilt artist Faith Ringgold about her long friendship and working relationship with Judith Brodsky, and explores how the Brodsky Center has become an international force in the world of paper and printmaking.
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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