Art:21 – Art in the 21st Century is a PBS series, educational resource, archive, and history of contemporary art. It premiered in 2001, and is now broadcast in over 50 countries worldwide. Premiering a new season every two years, Art:21 is the only series on United States television to focus exclusively on contemporary visual art and artists. It is a nonprofit organization founded in 1997 to make contemporary art more accessible to the public, and to document 21st-century art and artists from the artists’ own perspectives. Their overall goal is to raise the profile of major players in the world of contemporary art and to encourage creativity. The main office is located in New York City.

Art:21 Website

Videos: (Note: I think this site gets a lot of traffic. The VCU library also has these videos on DVD)

Identity – Artists address the idea of identity by questioning commonly held assumptions about stereotypes, self-awareness, portraiture, and what it means to be an artist.

Paradox – Contemporary artists address contradiction, ambiguity, and truth.

Protest – Artists engage politics, inequality, and the many conflicts that besiege the world today.

Ecology – Artists explore how our understanding of the natural world becomes deeply cultural.

Romance – Artists explore the roles that intuition, emotion, fantasy, and escapism play in contemporary art.

Play – Spontaneous and joyful, subversive or amusing, play can take many forms in daily life as well as in contemporary art.

Structures – Artists explore how we organize life and the ways in which we capture knowledge and attempt greater understanding.

Memory – Artists explore how memory functions and how to frame the past in their work.

Power – From politics to mass media, the theme of power pervades daily life and is reflected in the ideas and concerns of contemporary artists.

Humor – Artists use irony, goofiness, satire, and sarcasm in their work, being funny and critical at the same time.

Loss & Desire – Artists express longing, love, and human experience in contemporary work.

Time – Artists evoke and transform time in their work, relating to art of the ancient past, to nature, and to the rhythms of the life.

Stories – Artists tell stories in their work, reveal narrative traditions, and record and describe the world around us.

Consumption – Artists address the idea of consumption by questioning commonly held assumptions about commerce, mass media, and consumer society.

Spirituality – Artists address the idea of spirituality by questioning commonly held assumptions about faith, belief, meditation, and religious symbols.

Place – Artists explore the idea of place by questioning commonly held assumptions about land, home and national identity.