Arts Research

May 2003, 272 pages. Southern Illinois University Press, Robert A. Shanke, Theater in America Series, editor, 800-346-2680 or 618-453-2281, www.siu.edu/~siupress

"Without getting on a soapbox, I would say that dancing is as much a calling as it is anything else. Don't think of it as a career. You're stupid if you do. You've got to have something burning in your gut that you want to express."

2003, 243 pages, $25.00, Simon & Schuster, business@simonandschuster.com

From stage to film, downtown to uptown, tap to post-modern to bravado ballet, crossing over has been a mark of choreographer Twyla Tharp's career. Likewise, her latest book spans multiple genres. Part workbook, part behind the scenes autobiography, part self-help manual, The Creative Habit has a single message: If you dream of living a creative life, get to work!

Just about everyone by this time, I suppose, has heard of blogging, the act of keeping a Web journal, often accompanied by links to related online articles, photos, or Web sites. Weblogs, blogs for short, first appeared in the late 1990s. Early on, they were a geeky pastime that served mostly as a method to pass on interesting Web links to a small circle of like-minded readers.

2002, 231 pages, $24.95 paper, $65 cloth. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., New York

Each of the following Web sites is located somewhere on a continuum between the state of the union and the state of the arts.

The Web is a particularly effective medium for creating visual diagrams of events and practices from daily life. According to Paul Miller, one site's creator, we live in a "world of uncertainty." Each of the following sites, in its own way, diagrams an aspect of our uncertain world.

The first site delineates the historical context for current Web projects.

"To host the number one Hip Hop festival in the United States" — that is Larry Goldman's vision. Two years ago Mr. Goldman, president and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), charged Baraka Sele, curator/producer of NJPAC's World Festival: Alternate Routes, with bringing this statement to fruition. Over four days this fall (October 31, 2002 through November 3, 2002) NJPAC became one of the first major U.S. performing arts centers to host a festival dedicated to exploring and promoting Hip Hop.

During the San Francisco Bay Area's economic boom of the late 1990s and 2000, rising real estate costs challenged its artists and destabilized a number of key arts organizations. The dance field was particularly hard-hit when two important studios containing teaching, performance, and rehearsal spaces closed.

A labor of love for individuals committed to the significance and potential of media, Why FUND Media is a timely and worthy follow-up to a 1984 publication by the Council on Foundations titled How to Fund Media. Editor Karen Hirsch seamlessly brings together a series of separate chapters written by media arts experts who've based their chapter essays on extensive consultations with field representatives and grantmakers, and on historical research.

A recent GIA survey asked members to identify the most difficult challenge in their grantmaking work. Responses indicate that a common difficulty is "making a case for the arts in very difficult times," or "not being able to forcefully articulate the 'intangible' benefits of the arts." Helping members make stronger cases for arts giving was identified as important GIA work by over 80 percent of respondents. At a recent gathering, arts funders in Los Angeles wondered, "Why do we seem unable to be articulate about the value of art?