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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BPR's Matt Peiken has a brief conversation with the mezzo-soprano before Sunday's performance.
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"A Search for Safe Passage" was written to engage grade-schoolers who might someday choose to work toward curbing animal fatalities along the nation's highways.
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Melanie Bianchi's new short story collection is titled "The Ballad of Cherrystoke," and it draws on the author's experiences of Asheville during the 1990s.
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With Curatory Gallery, Ashten McKinney creates an outlet in Waynesville for underrepresented artistsAshten McKinney is the owner and, currently, primary exhibiting artist of Curatory Gallery, which they launched to promote underrepresented and marginalized creatives.
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The pandemic cut the sisters off from their people, but not their muse. They formed a songwriting group with three other women, each of them sharing new music with one another every week for the past two years and counting. They said they’re excited by what’s come from it—a collaborative album of new a capella music.
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Revolve hosts visual arts exhibitions, performance art installations and esoteric music performances—a programming mix unseen anywhere else in this region—but revenue has always been a challenge.
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Mindi Meltz has just published the final part of her “After Ever After” trilogy. The inspiration and larger question behind the series is right there in the title. Meltz wanted to explore what happens after the happily ever after.
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Zines are the shortened name for fan magazines. The format came of age in the 1930s and hasn’t changed much since. Writing or drawing on paper, hand-stapling or twine-binding and short-run copies are still at the heart of the practice. Some here blur the lines with art books, which can take on a boundless variety of content and physical form.
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Sound artist Laura Steenberge is performing Thursday night as part of a program at Black Mountain College Museum and Art Center.
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While Kenn Kotara's work lives in abstraction, the artist said social-political exploration is always at play. It’s right there in the title of his new show—”Order in an Unruly Zoo.” It’s on view through June 10 at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts.