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
-
Evan Kafka spent this past Friday night mounting animal heads on a wall as people strolled by sipping cups of wine.To be clear, Kafka’s “trophy series,”…
-
With a soft-spoken prayer, a few dozen members of the Eastern Band Cherokee welcomed others to view what they have held sacred for centuries: handcrafted…
-
When something catches Tema Stauffer’s eye, it’s through the lens of a camera using expandable bellows and 4-by-5-inch film.“I can spend quite a bit of…
-
It was only a few minutes after noon on Saturday when Tricia Arcos made her first sale at her first Big Crafty. “Excitement comes up in lots of forms,…
-
Paul Edelman remembers being four or five years old and hearing Bob Dylan on the family stereo.“I’m sitting on the couch by myself and “It’s All Right Ma,…
-
If the arts in Asheville were a representative democracy, it might look a lot like a new coalition built by the Asheville Area Arts Council. The coalition…
-
Julyan Davis has evolved into a novelist in part through stubbornness but, as he sees it, also by necessity. Davis is far from blind, but degenerating…
-
On a recent Friday night, the avant garde musical duo Okapi performed for a handful of people at Revolve in Asheville. The only illumination came from two…
-
In the early 2010s, anyone following the author Wiley Cash on Facebook would find what they’d likely expect. There were posts about Cash’s upcoming books…
-
Through faith and determination, retired Asheville native Fred Northup resurrects his biblical musicDecades before he retired from the ministry, Fred Northup devoted himself to a more creative calling.“I wrote this play, actually, 40 years ago,” Northup…