Welcome to KERA’s new Arts+Culture blog!

KERA, a major public broadcasting producer and the leading public radio and television station for North Texas, is strengthening its online presence through the launch of a new blog that will focus on artistic and cultural issues both in North Texas and across the world.

The Arts+Culture Blog aims to create an online community through the promotion of local arts events and new works, and discussion of new developments in the cultural world. The blog will also serve as a gateway to art analysis, conversation and exploration across the Internet.

The blog will feature a stable of staff contributors including KERA director of special projects Yolette Garcia, Deep in the Arts host Gini Mascorro and Think senior producer and Anything You Ever Wanted To Know host Jeff Whittington. Additionally, regular contributors from outside KERA will include noted critic and current Arts Journal book contributor Jerome Weeks.

The blog is part of a larger KERA initiative to cover the arts, including a comprehensive arts Web portal that will launch in 2008. The goal is to help artistic endeavors reach new audiences and touch lives, because a greater understanding of the arts enriches the human experience.

The project is made possible through generous support from Donna Wilhelm.

More on KERA

KERA is the primary source for public radio and television in North Texas.

KERA 13 contributes to the national PBS schedule by producing programs that showcase Texas and the Southwest to the nation. Its television productions have been lauded for excellence by top industry awards, including a national George Foster Peabody Award in 2002 for KERA’s co-production of The Cliburn: Playing on the Edge and a national Emmy Award in 1998 for KERA’s four-part documentary series, The U.S.-Mexican War (1846-1848). In 2001, KERA received a national Emmy nomination for its first high-definition television documentary, Matisse & Picasso. Recent national broadcasts co-produced by KERA include Sweet Tornado: Margo Jones and the American Theater, “Orozco: Man of Fire,” the American Masters portrait of Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco, and Independent Lens presentation “The Creek Runs Red.”

KERA 90.1, North Texas’ source for National Public Radio news, serves listeners with award-winning national arts and cultural programs such as Fresh Air and Selected Shorts, as well as KERA’s locally produced call-in program, Think. KERA’s award-winning radio team regularly contributes reports on national series, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Marketplace.