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.

This month, in honor of the publication of Studio 360's book Spark: How Creativity Works, we asked listeners to show us how they made something creative from an unexpected combination of materials. Scores of projects poured in, and they were so good, we chose three winners.

This month we're celebrating 360's first decade on the air with the publication of the book Spark: How Creativity Works, by long-time Studio 360 executive producer Julie Burstein. In the book, scores of America's greatest filmmakers, writers, musicians and artists give readers an inside look at their creative processes and inspiration.

This week Kurt and Julie look at the methods artists have for actually getting to work and getting that work done. They revisit Kurt's conversations with novelist Isabel Allende, painter Chuck Close, playwright Tony Kushner, and sculptor Richard Serra.

As the budget battle heats up, several states are looking to zero out arts funding. Last week Kansas got there first. Governor Sam Brownback abolished the Kansas Arts Commission. Kurt called up State Senator Roger Reitz — a Republican — who wants to save the Commission. The Governor's action, Reitz believes, is not a money-saver; he thinks it will actually hurt the state's economy.

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

Last week, in honor of the publication of Studio 360's book Spark: How Creativity Works, we asked listeners to show us how they made something creative from an unexpected combination of materials. Kurt talks to a few about their submissions, which include an icicle forest, a version of Hamlet staged on a Spokane off-ramp, and a painting made of coffee grounds.

This month we're celebrating 360's first decade on the air with the publication of the book Spark: How Creativity Works, by long-time Studio 360 executive producer Julie Burstein. In the book, scores of America's greatest filmmakers, writers, musicians and artists give readers an inside look at their creative processes and inspiration.

This week, Kurt and Julie discuss three different artists who confronted unique challenges and turned them into art: photographer Joel Meyerowitz, poet Donald Hall, and playwright Lynn Nottage.

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

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.

We're celebrating 360's first decade on the air with the publication of the book Spark: How Creativity Works, by long-time Studio 360 executive producer Julie Burstein. This week, Julie shares childhood stories from Chuck Close, Richard Ford, Mira Nair, and Richard Serra.

(To hear our original full-length interviews with those artists go here.)

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

In the 1960s and 70s, Lee Friedlander took his family on long road trips across America. The pictures Lee took during these trips established him as one of America’s most celebrated photographers. His son Erik is now an innovative cellist and composer, and his solo record Block Ice and Propane recalls those family trips long ago.

Today Detroit may be more famous for its blight than its automotive ingenuity. Visiting artists have grown enchanted with the crumbling architecture and ghost-city streets, creating work known as “ruin porn.” But how do Detroit’s own local artists feel about ruin porn and what it says about the city?

Michele Iversen has been taking pictures of strangers for years. But she's not your average street photographer. At night she sits in her car and watches the warm glowing windows of strangers' homes, waiting for the perfect shot. Produced by Studio 360's Jonathan Mitchell.

The Bay Area artist Trevor Paglen calls himself an experimental geographer. For one of his latest projects, Paglen's been tracking secret government spy satellites and taking photos of them. Reporter Lisa Katayama caught up with Paglen on the roof of his loft in West ...

Requiem for Steam is photographer David Plowden's love letter to the steam engine, full of moving portraits of the machinery, the rails, and the people he's met on a lifetime of journeys.

“The men were all talking about the great American novel, the great American play,...the great American everything,” said Georgia O’Keeffe. “So I thought . . . I’ll make it an American painting.”

The American Southwest continues to lure with its stark beauty. Last month a group of artists gathered in northern Arizona to make paintings of the Grand Canyon, now on display at the National Park. They see themselves as fighting a battle to keep sublime beauty alive in contemporary ...