Lara Pellegrinelli is a scholar and arts journalist. She received her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Harvard University in 2005, focusing her research on jazz studies. She is currently a guest lecturer at Princeton University. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Village Voice, Time Out New York, and Jazz Times. She currently contributes arts & culture pieces on a wide variety of topics to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Weekend Edition.

Abstract:

"And Now a Word From Our Sponsors: New Non-Profit Models for Arts Journalism"

On October 10, the Knight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts announced the winners of the first Knight/NEA Community Arts Journalism Challenge, projects based in Charlotte, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia and San Jose. That same day, the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program announced its 2011 Fellows and Engine29.org “Pop-up” Lab in Los Angeles. Both of these initiatives are evidence of growth in non-profit models for arts journalism and new institutional recognition that the field contributes positively to community building around the arts in the urban environment. This roundtable will ask what the individual projects awarded can tell us about future roles for arts journalists and critics as engaged participants in various musical scenes nationwide.