The brouhaha over budgets means arts funding remains on the chopping block across the country. What local artist or cultural institution is threatened by funding cuts in your hometown?  And what can — or should — be done about it?  Fill out our survey.

Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire may feel close to his Boston roots, but his next script will be set steps from the Yellow Brick Road.

Vidal Sassoon defined the mod revolution of the 1960’s with his iconic, sassy bob. Now the life of the 83-year-old British-born innovator is on display in intimate detail in “Vidal Sassoon The Movie.”

If you’ve just tuned in for the implosion of CBS’s most successful comedy, “Two and a Half Men,” you may be wondering: who’s this Chuck Lorre fellow?

This weekend, Studio 360’s got growing pains.  In a special rebroadcast of a show recorded live at WNYC’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, Kurt talks to three incredibly talented Gen-Xers -- Josh Ritter, Martha Plimpton, and Juno Diaz -- about the moment they left their youth behind.

Listen to full interviews with Isabel Allende, Chuck Close, and Tony Kushner.

Radio is an intimate medium, but nothing beats a good old-fashioned face-to-face conversation. Join Kurt Andersen and long-time executive producer Julie Burstein as they discuss Studio 360's new book, Spark, on Tuesday night at Barnes & Noble Tribeca.

Corey Dargel was a balladeer-for-hire.  A couple years ago, Kurt was looking for the perfect gift for his wife Anne and he called Corey up.  “Had I Jumped (for Anne from Kurt)” captures the couple’s first meeting in a rhythmic, airy tune.  Listen to the song… and Anne’s reaction as she listens for the first time!

Listen to full interviews with Donald Hall, Joel Meyerowitz, and Lynn Nottage.

It's easy to be cynical about the Grammy awards -- but if there's one reason to watch the show this weekend it's Janelle Monáe.

Even the optimists among us would be hard-pressed to imagine a brighter future for Egypt than Ehaab Abdou does.  Abdou is a youth activist, currently working with the Brookings Institution.  In his spare time, he delivers a message of tolerance and respect for diversity with the pop band Ana Masry.  It translates to the ecumenically flavored “I Am Egyptian.”

Devotees of the old Studio360.org may be wondering where audio from 2000-2006 has wandered off to. 

Answer: it's in storage.

Many of the artists featured in Spark: How Creativity Works talk about how unexpected materials inspire them to create great things. We want to know: Have you ever made something fantastic out of unexpected materials? A gingerbread high rise? A bouquet of roses out of bacon? Maybe a toy dog fashioned from an ink jar and screws? Show us your creation and tell us about what went into making it.

See fantastic entries already submitted by Studio 360 listeners!

The favorite entry (as determined by Studio 360 producers) will be posted on our site, featured on our February 18th show, and possibly more – plus we’ll send you a copy of Spark.

Google collaborated with 17 museums around the world to scan ultra-high res images of artwork from their galleries. With Google Art Project, you can virtually navigate you way through the collections in the Tate Modern in London or take a tour of the grounds of Versailles. And you can zoom in closer than you can in real life, without guards to chase you off.

Amid all the journalist-bloggers on the Cairo streets this week, Ahmed "Danny" Ramadan's posts on the arts news site Hyperallergic stood out to us. Especially the way he noticed how street graffiti had changed since the protests began. When Studio 360 reached Ramadan earlier this week, he told us that the "graffiti started out with simple slogans like: 'We love Egypt' and 'Down with Mubarak.'" But then it got more creative, Ramadan said.

Listen to full interviews with Ben Burtt, Stanley Kunitz, and Elizabeth Streb.

Some of the world's greatest art has been inspired by revolution, but how often does a work of art become part of the revolution itself? Watching the protests in Cairo last week, Egyptian poet Tamim Al-Barghouti was inspired to write a brand new poem -- its Arabic title roughly translates as "Oh Egypt, It's Close."

Listen to full interviews with Chuck Close, Richard Ford, Mira Nair, and Richard Serra.

Jon Robin Baitz was already a successful playwright when he went to Hollywood to create ABC's Brother's and Sisters. The show was a hit for Baitz, but turns out, the city was anything but: "It was a nightmare.  Just the fact that I came from New York and wrote sort of serious-ish plays, before I opened my mouth, there was a kind of trope going around the network already: 'We can't have any of the Baitzian angst.'''