Matt Peiken
Former Arts ProducerMatt Peiken was BPR’s first full-time arts journalist.
He spent his entire career covering arts and culture. He spent 10 years at the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota writing profiles, opinion columns, and trend stories on visual, literary and performing arts. At WCPO Television in Cincinnati, Ohio, he produced videos and created podcasts for WCPO.com about area artists and cultural events. Returning to Minnesota, he created an independent online arts television series, 3-Minute Egg, which he expanded into a weekly broadcast series on Twin Cities Public Television.
Matt has served as a regional editor for Patch.com, part of a national network of hyperlocal news sites. He was also the Managing Editor of the Walker Magazine, the bimonthly publication of the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis.
Matt says he was drawn to Blue Ridge Public Radio and Asheville for the opportunity to produce public radio journalism in a region that is renowned for its creative community. He’s especially interested in forming partnerships across Western North Carolina that shine a light on regional artists for new audiences. He received his Bachelor of Arts in journalism at California State University – Fresno, and was the recipient of a National Arts Journalism Program Fellowship and a Poynter Institute Fellowship.
Email: mpeiken@bpr.org
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This five-part audio series explores the fast-moving trend of artists and investors diving into the digital art market connected to cryptocurrency.
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In the recording studio with Lena Machina of the Asheville goth rock band Secret Shame
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The word anxiety comes up often as Zander Stefani describes his life. He said he channels some of it into his abstract artwork. “It’s like I’m painting…
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A lot of artists will tell you an inner voice propels them to create. The Asheville playwright Jamie Knox says, for her, it’s often a voice that isn’t her…
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Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen are rehearsing with two other dancers inside a studio at the Wortham Center for Performing Arts. Everyone is masked. “OK…
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Dozens of businesses in downtown Asheville boarded up their windows when protesters marched in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. Those…
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John and Cinnamon Kennedy formed their first band before they knew how to play their instruments.“One day, John and our neighbor were like ‘We’re making a…
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Heather Newton's mother has written nine novels for young adults. She’s also the first to read and critique whatever Newton thinks is ready to go out into…
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The Asheville Symphony's new Alt ASO series fulfills something music director Darko Butorac has wanted since arriving in Asheville three seasons…