STATEWIDE – State of the Arts goes “on the road” with an unusual crew of dancers, musicians, and artists who show how they and their art forms change through the experience of travel. This encore presentation of On the Road airs on Wednesday, March 7 at 11:30 pm.

• Homecoming
Stacey Kent is an expatriate singer whose bio reads like a piece of romantic fiction. American girl studying abroad meets British saxophone player and switches from comparative literature to music. Kent then cuts a demo tape that lands her a movie role, a recording contract, and heavy airplay on Britain's jazz stations. Next she marries the saxophonist, tours the world and becomes a star in her adopted country. In her native country — she grew up in New Jersey and New York — her star is somewhat dimmer. But American recognition is steadily building, thanks to great press, and a lot of miles on the road. The grueling schedule of one-night stands in different cities is bearable, she says, because she does it with her husband Jim Tomlinson.

• Blow Up Big
The next act we meet on the road is the Fred Garbo Inflatable Theatre Company as they bounce into New Jersey to create their expanding universe of gigantic puppies, floating shapes, shapeless blobs and many other pumped-up characters. Then watch them deflate the whole thing and move on to their next performance date. Fred Garbo started his career as Barkley on Sesame Street, moved on to tour with Michael Moshen, and now tours his own wildly popular dance theatre company.

• Old Plank Road
Going on the road affects more than just performers — it affects the music they play as well. Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains points out that blue grass and country music both have their roots in Irish traditional music, and that the musical connections make moving between the three worlds extremely natural and comfortable. The Chieftains explore the roads taken by traditional Irish songs in their encore album to “Down the Old Plank Road,” called “Further Down the Old Plank Road.”

• Jersey Ride
Making art out of what takes us “on the road” is what New Jersey artist Chakaia Booker uses does. She uses the tires on our cars to create her art by manipulating their shape and content into works that are about conceptual meaning, perseverance and struggle as well as about form and motion. Born in Newark, Booker’s mid-career retrospective “Jersey Ride” was shown at the Jersey City Art Museum in 2004. “Jersey Ride” explored the fact that much of Booker’s work is steeped in the influence of the landscape and environment in which she was raised.

• Turnpike
If you live in New Jersey, going “on the road” most likely includes the New Jersey Turnpike. Watch a clip from the award winning documentary Turnpike, a special State of the Arts featuring art and artists inspired by this famous American road.

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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