Global Narratives, Inc. (The Arts Fuse)

Target demographics: Arts lovers in New England and beyond!

Geographic areas served: New England

Programs: In the early 19th century, Edgar Allan Poe demanded an Americancriticism of the arts and humanities crafted to educate andintellectually stimulate the public. For him, reviews should engage andchallenge readers about compelling cultural issues—from considerationsof the evolving identity of American art to the controversial politicsof cultural influence—in ways that reflect the fast-moving rhythms anddiversity of American society.  

For Poe, the best criticism serves as a lively bridge between thinkerswith far-reaching ideas in the humanities and a varied readershipinterested in seriously but efficiently discussing the arts, culture,and society. 

The Arts Fuse is taking up that challenge, using theopportunities proffered by the internet to refashion criticism of thearts and humanities in ways that meet Poe's demands. And we have justlearned that we have received a grant from Mass Humanities to helpcreate fiveJudicial Reviews, our innovative response to Poe's ideal. This is very good news.
 While many news organizations are fretting about the state ofinvestigative reporting with the slow extinction of print, we are takingup a relatively overlooked by-product of the end of newspapers andmagazines—the curtailment of serious coverage of the arts.
The challenge is to find new, interactive, and substantial ways to coverthe arts and humanities on the Web. The future of cultural thinkinglies somewhere between a centralized  "Google" critic of the arts and amillion opinions on a zillion blogs. We hope to help fashion thatcurated, conversational space.

The inspiration for the Judicial Review is the U.S. Supreme Court. Artsevents will be evaluated by local panels of “judges” who will postmajority and dissenting opinions in the form of written reviews or viavideo or podcasts. 

Our aim is to create and maintain, online, an in-depth and interactivediscussion of the issues raised by the arts—social, cultural,political—among academics, critics, artists, and the wider public. Thearts that will be covered range from books (fiction as well asnon-fiction) to dance, music (jazz, classical, popular), theater, film,and the visual arts.

The panel will be made up of a combination of professional critics,humanities scholars, and non-professional observers. The “case” will bepresented to the readers of the cultural selection underconsideration—perhaps the text of the play, video clips of the film or adance performance, a recording of the concert, or excerpts from thebook. 

Once the judgments have been rendered, there will be summaries of the“Majority” and “Minority” opinions with an invitation to the feature’sreaders to respond to the judges, who may want to question each other aswell.

The Supreme Court calls for “Friend of the Court” briefs. The JudicialReview will invite artists themselves to have their say, to contributeto a respectful exchange of views and ideas. Humanities scholars willcontribute “sidebars” providing the cultural and historical backgroundof the performance, exhibition, or written piece. 

Consulting scholars to the Judicial Review will help chose the academicsfor the panels and will contribute “sidebars” to the project as well aswriting reviews and participating in some discussions.

Finally, the artsorganization under review will be encouraged to file opinions andresponses. Links within Judicial Review pages will encourage readers tofollow an argument a