Join us as we get a front row seat to pastel artist Rufus Chalmers’ performance of American jazz musicians. We meet a museum designer that is applying his craft to an unlikely pursuit of winemaking. We go inside the American Folk Art Museum and take a look at artist Ralph Fananella’s large-scale canvases celebrating working class neighborhoods. And we check out The Listening Room Festival, a unique festival where touring musicians provide an up close and personal performance for fans.

Native Nevadan Megan Berner is a visual artist who works with a variety of digital and experimental techniques to bring us dreamlike images that open our eyes to creative expression. Daniel Brown has a thing for burnouts, horsepower and loud exhaust. It seemed ideal to combine his love of art and his love of cars. Until he realized how hard it was for an automotive painter to be get respect. The Ballad of Baby Doe is the enduring American opera based on the true story of the Tabor love triangle during Colorado's gold rush days, staged every ten years by the Central City Opera. John Tobin and his wife met in a clay art class. They traveled the world to pursue a career in art education with the Department of Defense Dependent Schools. Years later, several of the students found them online.

Colin Matthes puts a creative spin on demolition derbies while incorporating his love for alternative energy. We go behind the scenes of one of the world’s most beloved holiday classics, “The Nutcracker. Experience the upper crust society in the U.S. during the period of Downton Abbey and multimedia artist Sheila Elias demonstrates her digital skills.

A coffee shop in Tampa combines job training and art for individuals on the autism spectrum, in an effort to provide real world work experience and an avenue for art. We chat with a video artist and photographer who makes 18th century-looking videos and builds machines he calls ‘televisors’ to watch them on. Discover how a dance program’s discipline and rigor helps gear students toward academic success. And we sit down with actor and 50’s teen heartthrob, Tab Hunter.

In this episode of Art Connection we discover an eerie way in which children’s pictures were once taken. We walk the halls of Texas Southern University, where over 60 years of student murals tell the distinct story of the black experience in the south. Comedians in Portland, Oregon show us what it takes to nail comedic timing and we go behind the scenes of a local New York production of Spamalot.

Join us as we tour the iconic amusement park, Disneyland, with Marty Sklar, an Imagineer who worked alongside Walt Disney himself in making Disneyland the happiest place on Earth. Artist Andrea Geer shares her creative journey from painter to clothing designer. Hmong Qeej player, Chai Lee, performs and explains the significance of this traditional wind instrument. And we visit the FRESH A.I.R. Gallery where the creative journey of recovering artists is displayed.

Reporter Rob Stewart takes us backstage and underground at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium to see what brings a historic pipe organ to life. Baltimore-based photographer and visual artist, Lynne Parks, finds the beauty in random design and juxtapositions. We take a look at art prints of Ray Maseman that were hatched from dreams, myths, children’s stories and observations and we get the inside scoop on Ohio-based indie band, Dave Buker & the Historians.

Take a look back at Beatlemania at The Beatles exhibit at History Miami and get a look into the legend of the popular band. Photographer Gordon Parks shot a series depicting the realities of life under segregation and this series was never published until the Museum of Fine Arts did. Beck & Orr Book Binders specialize in the repair and restoration of books that mean the most to us. And contemporary Native American artist Brent Learned takes us into his studio where he captures the essence of American Plains Indians.

Meet Juan Trujillo and his wife Stefani Schrimpf, owners of the Kansas School for Classical Ballet, where young dancers don’t just learn the steps, but the hard work and discipline ballet requires. New Orleans artist Rolland Golden shares with us where he finds his inspiration. We visit Helen Harrison’s studio where working with organic material such as fruits and palms is artist her specialty. And we visit the RedLine Gallery where we explore play through art, which challenges traditional ideas and interactions with familiar spaces and objects.

Bollywood and Indian culture come to the U.S. as IIFA hosts its annual show in Tampa, Florida. We meet an artist that helped fill the empty frames at a historic Boston Museum. Designer Kenji Kondo is changing the game when it comes to manufacturing goods. His blueprints can be shared electronically and created wherever Kondo has customers and finally, we talk with artist Steve Slaske about his fascination with architecture and city skylines

Writer Daisy Goodman shows us a young, passionate, fiery Queen Victoria. We visit Columbus, Ohio’s boutique hotel, “The Joseph that’s filled with art. The Guadalupe Dance Company shares their wide range of arts and educational programming focused on San Antonio’s rich history. And we see how multimedia artist Philip Noyed’s work is constantly evolving.

Oil painter, Mike Welton, uses his paintings to show a slice of urban areas throughout the Midwest and views them as architectural preservation. We visit The Musical Instrument Museum, which is the only museum in the world devoted to global musical instruments. We visit one of the only glass studios in Houston, Texas. And the Daytona Beach Symphony exposes at-risk students through the “Youth Experiencing Symphony program that helps students broaden their horizons.

We visit The Origin KC Theater in Kansas City, where a vast catalogue of original work has been mounting since Artistic Director, Eric Rosen, took the reins eight years ago. We take a look at environmental sculptor Roy Staab’s newest installation and how it’s designed to go up and then decay into its surroundings. Two wonderful and unique collections from Mexican modern art masters have taken up residence at the NSU Art Museum. And the Colorado Symphony takes the work of an American poet and sets out to create something new.

In this edition of Art Connection we visit a Korean art fair in the city of Houston. Declan Kiely, head of the Department of Literary and Historical Manuscripts at the Morgan Library and Museum discusses the “Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul exhibit. We get an extensive lesson in animation from experienced cartoon animator Tim Decker and Jessica Fellows, author of the Chronicles of Downton Abbey, talks about Cora’s leading role as “the American.

Ohio based Zoot Theater Company creates and uses puppets to entertain and stimulate the creative spirit. Screen-printing sensation Carlos Hernandez shares how he became obsessed with the medium. We take a look at the home of prolific female photographer Alice Austen. And the lead singer from Everclear inspires the next generation of musicians at the new Los Angeles College of Music.

We talk with a music producer with a long and successful career playing and producing jazz music that now has a new mission, to turn a new generation onto jazz through education and performance. We stop by Houston’s historic Glenwood Cemetery. We examine the shift in Norman Rockwell’s paintings towards the end of career and chef Ingrid Hoffmann shares personal stories that inspired the latest cookbook, “Latin D’lite.

In this episode of Art Connection, we check out a unique approach to calligraphy by the Japanese performance artist, Setsuhi Shiraish. Artist Sharon Gainsburg shares what she knows about her art, as well as what she knows about how to unlock the creative artist in all of us. Curator Alicia G. Longwell discusses the permanent collection of works by American impressionist William Merritt Chase at the Parrish Art Museum. And we see how the Frei family continues to apply medieval techniques to the craft of stained glass windows.

University of Tampa's Haig Mardirosian provides an inside look at the grand 21st century pipe organ housed inside Sykes Chapel at the University of Tampa. Laura Leigh Lanchantin is a fine artist and instructor focused in oils and watercolors. Inspired by nature, Laura completes her work layering stone pigments she creates from Catskill Mountain sedimentary rock. The Cedarburg Artists Guild collaborated with the Grohmann Museum at the Milwaukee School of Engineering for an exhibition called "Artists at Work". Lastly, self-taught Reno glass blower and lamp worker Nicole Seaton started out her artistic journey as a jewelry maker who wanted to create her own centerpieces for her work.

Meet Terri Kern, an artist who pours her passion for archeology into the clay sculptures she dreams up. We sing the blues with Central Florida’s Blues legend, Daniel Heitz. Discover the power of language as we tour the Ian Hamilton Finaly and Lesley Dill exhibit at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. And we sit down with award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns as he shares how he got into the business of making Downloadable docsaries and his thoughts behind his recent project “American Ballet Theater, A History.

Get an up close look at an art exhibit that features the lost city of Pompeii. Jared Bowen talks with Phyllis Logan, Lesley Nicol and Allen Leech of Downton Abbey. A craftsman in Magnolia, Texas keeps the traditional methods of blacksmithing alive and a selection of mid-century textiles are featured.