Coast-To-Coast Journey to Great American Art Highlights Museums, Architecture and Offbeat ‘Roadside Art-Tractions’ From California to Maine… In Glorious High-Definition Broadcast
NEW YORK, September 2006 – VOOM HD Network’s GALLERY HD makes the journey from the roadways to the airwaves with the October 12th premiere of ARTLAND: USA, a new and novel HDTV series which showcases the uniquely rich and varied world of American art, recorded on a three-month, cross-country trek through the heartland of our nation. From renowned museums to strange roadside attractions, this weekly series is both a treat for art-lovers of every stripe and a whole new way to look at the U.S.A. — offering novice and experienced travelers a host of new vacation ideas, perfect for families and individuals alike. New episodes will premiere every Thursday at 8pm (ET) through December 28th.
This summer, ARTLAND: USA’s two vibrant hosts, Charles Luxton and Mame McCuthchin, boarded a 35-foot ARTLAND RV, along with a production team, and set off to visit more than 20 locales, from San Diego, California to Rumford, Maine. These included major art hubs like Chicago, Boston, Denver, Santa Fe/Taos and Minneapolis and remote outposts like the Nevada desert and Plano, Illinois, where artist Walter De Maria and architect Mies van der Rohe respectively created groundbreaking works. GALLERY HD is a high-definition television network wholly dedicated to visual arts, and creator of the acclaimed series ARTSTAR. The channel is one of the 15 VOOM HD Network’s, the largest collection of 24/7 HD channels anywhere, currently available nationally on the DISH satellite network.
The art of America is as varied as its people, ranging from sophisticated public works and wildly individual experiments, to just plain fun. Each episode of ARTLAND: USA offers a portrait of the art of its subject region, and includes interviews with significant artists of today, sites associated with major moments in art history and noteworthy public or private art collections. Also included will be major public art and architecture, and spirited folk and outsider art – much of which will be found roadside during their travels. Context will be given via interviews with noted curators, academics and the locals in each destination. Following are some of the highlights that viewers will experience in this novel series:
- Museums, Large & Small, Private & Public – Including San Diego’s Museum of Contemporary Art; Santa Fe’s Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; Art Institute of Chicago; the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge; MASS MoCA ,Williamstown; as well as the studios of Winslow Homer and Jackson Pollock. Also included will be a look at the works of President Bush’s favorite painter, Tom Lea, at the El Paso Museum of Art and the paintings of writer D.H. Lawrence at Taos’ La Fonda Hotel;
- Living Artists at Work – Including sculptor John Chamberlain at his studio in Sag Harbor, NY; Roden Paolo Soleri, the experimental architect behind the ecological high desert community of Arcosanti; renowned photographer Alec Soth and “alternative cartoonist” Chris Ware at his one-man show at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. For a walk on the wild side, there’s also a visit with Surapa, a 4.5 ton Asian elephant who paints Monday – Friday at the Buffalo Zoo;
- America Through the Lens – Including the work of Ansel Adams at Tucson’s Center for Creative Photography; the 80,000 image archive of African-American photographer Teenie Harris at Pittsburg’s Carnegie Museum; the photographs of Eudora Welty at Davenport’s Figge Museum and the Aurora, Nebraska museum dedicated stop-motion photography pioneer “Doc” Edgerton;
- Roadside Art-tractions – Including Ant Farm’s Cadillac Ranch and Jim Reinder’s Carhenge, Elmgreen and Dragset’s Prada Store in the Desert and The World’s Largest Easel and Ball of Paint;
- Public Art – Including sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle’s Queen Califia’s Magical Garden in Escondido; Oscar Hansen’s final monument at the Hoover Dam; the astonishing Cloud Gate sculpture by Anish Kapoor at Chicago’s Millennium Park; Eero Saarinen’s Gateway Arch and the first of Richard Serra’s torque steel spirals, Joe, in the courtyard of St. Louis’ Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts;
- Architecture – Including residential watershed works like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesen West; Mies van der Rohe’s “Glass House” in Plano, IL; and the 50’s modernism of R.M Schindler and Richard Neutra in Palm Springs. Also included will be noteworthy institutional architecture such as Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute; Daniel Libeskind’s Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum and Walter Netsch’s Air Force Academy Chapel in Colorado Springs;
- Small Towns, Big Art – Including Marfa, the tiny Texas town that became a hub for modern art through the late Donald Judd and compatriots like Dan Flavin, John Chamberlain and Coosje van Bruggen;
- The Many Faces of American Folk Art -Nebraska’s International Quilt Study Center; the work of the last Shakers at Sabbathday Lake and the surfboard art of Drew Brophy in Southern California.
ARTLAND: USA’s co-host Charles Luxton is a London-based architect who has brought a greater appreciation of design to his countrymen as the host of BBC shows including RESTORED TO GLORY and BIONIC BUILDINGS. Co-star Mame McCutchin is a new television “discovery,” whose varied and intriguing career has led her from technology jobs at NASA and BMG to travel writer and author of Zanzibar: An Essential Guide. The duo travels the country together, each adding their unique reflections and observations on the art and artists we meet through ARTLAND: USA.
ARTLAND: USA is an original production of GALLERY HD, the first and only 24-hour arts channel, which is available nationwide on the DISH satellite network (channel 9472). GALLERY HD is one of 15 high-definition channels offered by VOOM HD Networks. With breathtaking content that brings television to a new level of experience, VOOM is TV made for HD, with commercial-free programming as diverse as movies, sports, animation and family fare, fashion, music and art.
Tamar Hacker is Executive Producer of ARTLAND: USA for GALLERY HD. ARTLAND: USA is produced for GALLERY HD by John Wyver and Sebastian Grant of ILLUMINATIONS FILMS/UK.
About VOOM HD Networks
The VOOM HD Networks are the largest and most diverse suite of high definition channels available anywhere. Produced exclusively in true high definition and 5.1 Dolby digital surround sound for distribution in the U.S. through satellite and cable operators, the 15 VOOM HD Networks carry programming in categories as diverse as sports, movies, fashion, music and art. The VOOM HD Networks are commercial-free and available nationally on Echostar’s DISH Network. Developed by Rainbow Media to meet the growing demand for quality high definition programming, the VOOM HD Networks build on Rainbow Media’s history of original programming innovation.
About Rainbow Media Holdings LLC
Rainbow Media Holdings LLC is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC). Rainbow Media creates and manages some of the country’s most compelling and dynamic entertainment brands including popular national and regional television channels AMC, fuse, The Independent Film Channel (IFC), WE tv, and two FSN affiliated regional sports networks managed by Rainbow Sports Networks. The company also manages Mag Rack and sportskool, two original on-demand networks; VOOM HD Networks, the largest and most diverse suite of high definition channels available anywhere; IFC Entertainment, its film distribution, production and exhibition division; Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation, its advertising sales division; and Rainbow Network Communications, its full service network programming origination and distribution company.