January 16, 2009
We asked some of our favorite artists what they wanted from our president-to-be. Listen to voicemail messages of their answers - no holds barred. In this installment: David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet, writer Cintra Wilson, and poet Edwin Torres. All voicemail segments produced by Sarah Lilley.
Kurt asks Gioia, the departing chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, about his sense of where the arts in America are headed at this moment of flux. Gioia was a Bush appointee, but he's down with a Democrat who reads poetry.
More special requests for the president-elect from saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, choreographer Elizabeth Streb, chef Wylie Dufresne, and actor Sarah Jones.
Art played a bigger role in this presidential election than ever before. Especially that heroic red-white-and-blue image of Barack Obama. You know the one. It's by a street artist named Shepard Fairey. WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter talked to him and some other Obama image makers, who confessed that victory puts them in a tricky situation.
Musician DJ Rekha, monologist Mike Daisey, and actor-writer Iris Bahr tell Obama what they want from his presidency.
In her one-woman shows Iris Bahr uses an amazing arsenal of characters whom she writes and performs. One of them is Svetlana, the Russian prostitute with serious pretensions. She's something of a cultural commentator, and she has her own ideas about the transfer of power.
The virtuoso cellist performs in a quartet with Itzhak Perlman at Inauguration this week. He's a household name, but as Ma told Kurt when he performed in our studio, he loves collaboration.
(Originally aired: October 19, 2007)
Sculptor Richard Serra tells the president-elect what he's hoping for after January 20th.
Stephen Talasnik's drawings, on view now at the Queens Museum, are detailed blueprints of fantastical architecture. They're inspired by the museum's Panorama - a meticulous scale model of New York City. Produced by Eric Molinsky and Derek John.
Culinary Arts Museum curator Richard J.S. Gutman explains why an American classic from the aluminum age never goes out of style. Produced by Kathryn Eident.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
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Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
