The arts community is invited to an exploration and working sessions to generate ideas about the future of arts criticism and coverage in our region. Changes in arts coverage and print journalism, along with the burgeoning of blogs, social media, and unmediated online arts criticism raise several issue that will be examined. Sponsors: Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts and Charles Loridans Foundation with additional support from Hightower Fund, the Michael C. Carlos Museum, and Public Broadcasting Atlanta.

News Story - A.O. Scott Remarks on Emory Symposium

Schedule

Separate registration is required for each day. Please note we are no longer accepting reservations for the 3/19 event. To sign up for the event waiting list, please call (404) 727-5050.
Register online for Saturday's activities (March 20), call 404-727-5050, or visit the Box Office (no transaction fee). Student tickets not available online, must reserve over the phone or in person.
Event Location: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Reception Hall, Emory University
571 South Kilgo Circle, Atlanta, GA, 30322 (map)
Parking information, Fishburne Deck (free after 5 p.m. and on weekends)

Friday, March 19

We are no longer accepting reservations for this event. To sign up for the event waiting list, please call (404) 727-5050.
7 p.m.
Greeting: Michael C. Carlos Museum staff
Introduction: Leslie Taylor, Executive Director, Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts
Keynote Speaker: A.O. Scott, national film critic and arts journalists

A.O. Scott joined the New York Times as a film critic in 2000. in addition to regular reviews and articles about movies, he has contributed frequently to the Times's book review, magazine and week in review sections, writing on topics ranging from the Simpsons to Romanian Cinema to the writings of Kingsley Amis and David Foster Wallace. In September 2009, he was named co-host of At the Movies, the long-running syndicated film-reviewing show. He lives in Brooklyn with his family.

News Story - A.O. Scott Remarks on Emory Symposium

Saturday, March 20

Register online, call 404-727-5050, or visit the Box Office (no transaction fee)
$15 advance (includes lunch); $20 at door.
Free for all students with registration (not available online). Limited seating.
9 a.m. — Registration opens
9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Overview: State of Arts Criticism & Coverage, Nicole Jones and Sally Corbett
Panelists: Mark Bauerlein, Blake Beckham, Susan Booth, Cinqué Hicks, Pierre Ruhe
Moderated Table Discussions, Reports from Tables, and Next Steps:
Moderators include Cathy Fox (art and architecture critic, ArtsCriticATL.com), Floramaria Garcia (Executive Director, Metro Atlanta Arts and Culture Coalition), Nicole Jones (PBA Arts and Culture Manager, Lens on Atlanta and AtlantaPlanit.com), Debbie Michaud (Arts & Entertainment Editor, Creative Loafing), and more to be announced.

Background and Special Announcements from Our Partners

Michael C. Carlos Museum

The Museum's special exhibition When Gold Blossoms: Indian Jewelry from the Susan L. Beningson Collection (March 20-July 11, 2010) celebrates the dazzling beauty and awe-inspiring technical craftsmanship of Indian jewelry with more than 150 pieces spanning 2000 years. Also on view are the Museum's permanent collections with some 16,000 objects from ancient Egypt, the Near East, Greece, Rome, the Americas, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, as well as works on paper.

Special Conference Participant Museum Discounts:

• Media: media passes are available upon request for media attending the conference.
• General Conference Attendees: please show your conference program at the Museum's front desk to receive $4 off admission (pay $4 instead of $8) to see special exhibitions and the permanent collection. Offer valid until the end of the exhibition When Gold Blossoms: Indian Jewelry from the Susan L. Beningson Collection (ends July 11, 2010).
• Friends and Family Special: conference attendees will receive two $2-off vouchers for each conference attendee's friends or family members.
• Carlos Museum Members and Emory Students and Employees: admission is free.

About Lens on Atlanta

Lens on Atlanta is an online community developed and sponsored by Public Broadcasting Atlanta to promote the arts, education and civic engagement in metro Atlanta. The site, still in beta testing, is designed to engage metro Atlanta citizens directly in our democratic process, using today's Internet technologies. Lens will become a resource that provides free social networking tools to metro Atlanta individuals, elected officials and organizations so they can increase communications, connect with their community, and organize around key issues. This community that thrives on information sharing and user-generated content to encourage citizen empowerment and discourse will, ultimately, effect positive change in Atlanta. Lens on Atlanta is central to the mission at Public Broadcasting Atlanta to educate, inform and empower the communities we serve. Our promise is to make Lens on Atlanta a balanced platform for conversations, debates and civil discourse - a place where our citizens can connect, collaborate and create change.

Panelists

Mark Bauerlein

Mark Bauerlein is Professor of English at Emory University, and has recently served as Director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts. His scholarly essays have appeared in PMLA, Yale Review, Wilson Quarterly, and Partisan Review, and his commentaries and reviews have appeared in Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, TLS, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Weekly Standard, Reason Magazine, and Chronicle of Higher Education.

Blake Beckham

Blake Beckham has a BA from Emory University and MFA from The Ohio State University. She serves as the Development Director for Moving in the Spirit, a dance program that empowers children in underserved communities. Beckham teaches ballet and modern dance at Agnes Scott College. She is a board member of Gardenhouse Dance and advisory council member of the Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts. MAACC named her a 2009 "Arts Leader of Metro Atlanta." In 2009, she was a guest choreographer and performer in Emory's Dance Program, participated in the Decatur Arts Festival, and the groundbreaking project, "Dance Truck." Her dance credits include roles in works by artists including Bebe Miller, Michael Estanich, Adam Overton, Joe Alter, Anna Leo, Nicole Livieratos and Lori Teague. She has danced and presented her choreography in Atlanta, Miami, New York, Chicago, Ohio, and Poland. She co-founded "The Nerve Series," showcasing emerging contemporary dance artists (2001-2006) and is the curator of "Dance for Reel," a series of screenings featuring dance for camera. Beckham's newest work premieres at 7 Stages in April 2010. Learn more at www.bdancing.com.

Susan Booth

Susan V. Booth joined the Alliance as its Artistic Director in 2001. Since then, the theatre has originated new work for Broadway ("The Color Purple"), London's West End ("Sister Act"), National and International tours ("25th Putnam County Spelling Bee" and "Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk") and has partnered each season with both regional and local theaters. During her tenure, the Alliance has created the Kendeda National Playwriting Competition, the City Series, and the Collision Project, and received the 2007 Tony Award for Regional Theatre Excellence. She has directed for theaters across the country, including The Goodman, La Jolla Playhouse, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, New York Stage and Film, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Cincinnati Playhouse, and has been on the theatre faculty for Northwestern, DePaul and Emory Universities. She is a board member and past chair of TCG, board member of Metro Atlanta Arts and Culture Coalition, and co-chair of the City of Atlanta's "One Book, One Community" Program. She has degrees from Denison and Northwestern Universities, and was a fellow of the National Critics Institute.

Cinqué Hicks

Cinqué Hicks is a writer, artist and cultural analyst. From 2003 to 2005 he edited and produced the resource blog Electric Skin: Black Art and Technoculture News from the Front Lines. Art in America named Electric Skin one of 10 art blogs most worth daily reading. He founded Code Z, an online daily news magazine in 2006. He is currently visual arts critic and arts writer for Creative Loafing and is concurrently undertaking research in the mapping of creative ecologies at Georgia Tech.

Pierre Ruhe

Pierre Ruhe is editor and co-founder of ArtsCriticATL.com, a website that covers the arts in Atlanta and is written primarily by professional journalists. He was The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's classical music critic for nine years, and had been a critic for The Washington Post and London's Financial Times and an editor of National Public Radio's "Performance Today." He is working on a book about Handel, Rameau and Baroque opera (Amadeus Press).