About Us

Starting last summer, a group of us at The Arts Fuse began to dream about what an ideal arts and culture website might look like.

First of all, we decided that it should provide serious, informed criticism and opinion about the arts, not just random blog posts or “Tweets.” It should be literate, not wasting its readers’ time with rambling, poorly written copy. It should be thought-provoking. It should inspire a conversation among critics, producers, and consumers of the arts.

It should be local. A website in Seattle or Washington, DC, might provide good national political commentary, or useful garden tips, or even movie reviews, but it probably is not going to engage very directly in local theatre or the Boston jazz scene.

Finally, it should be independent and self-sustaining, not relying on free “user generated content,” hand-outs from interested parties (like the arts organizations themselves), or on hidden sugar daddies with motives of their own. It would fight for editorial and intellectual integrity.

Another thing we thought is that a good cultural website should not be entirely virtual. After all, the arts are still mostly a real-life, face-to-face activity. We don’t go to see theatre or art exhibitions on-line and chat rooms are no substitute for a good conversation after dinner.

This fall, we are starting to roll out these ideas on-line. We are introducing new and innovative features focused on the Boston and New England Community. The most visible online will be the introduction of a judicial reviewing paradigm, a fresh approach that combines editorial integrity with the community-making power of interactivity. Arts events will be evaluated by local panels of “judges” who will post majority and dissenting opinions in the form of written reviews or via video- or podcasts.

The panel will be made up of a combination of professional critics and non-professional observers. Our aim is to introduce a supervised space for educational, passionate, and incisive conversation about the arts that draws on the strengths of various levels of expertise.

Arts organizations, artists, and readers will be invited to file dissenting opinions or “friend of the court” briefs. Also, in individual blogs judges will address important issues raised by the arts in ways that encourage discussion.

We are incorporating as a non-profit. We are revving up a membership program designed both to raise funds to support the project and to provide that critical, real-time experience that is still so vital to the cultural life of a city and a region. We are organizing a series of public forums and events.

Please become part of this effort to create a place for an ideal cultural dialogue, the kind that fosters an engaged community throughout New England by nurturing meaningful commentary about the arts online.

– Bill Marx, Editor