Arts & Minds

What do you think about arts coverage on TV One since the dawning of the charter era at TVNZ? It's true, a little arts programming has slunk on to TV One, but it's safe in subject and ghettoised by its scheduling. For instance, Saturday night has become arts night and, therefore, anything that roughly fits the bill is shovelled in there: the NZ Festival series, which included Peter Wells' Pansy and Merata Mita's Hotere documentary, followed by episodes of Mercury Lane which in its turn is often followed by another vaguely artsy programme like the odd show about The King and I, last week's look at Led Zeppelin on tour or - as in this Saturday - Rod Stewart. Boring ...

It's a bit rich expecting viewers to sit through a string of like-genre programmes through an entire evening. And the network's culture of failure to deliver in-depth features has prevailed for so long it's become a rut.

So imagine the shock of discovering there's a new series starting on Saturday April 19 at 10.30pm which sounds promising: World Arts, debuting with Graham Greene: The Beginning of the End of the Affair, documenting the long, unhappy love affair which inspired Greene to write The End of the Affair. Included in the series, which comes from disparate sources, are features on writer Roald Dahl, Afro-Cuban All Stars, filmed in Havana, a South Bank Show on Carmen, a musical tribute to Leonard Bernstein's New York, Uncut by REM, a profile of director Sam Mendes and a documentary on the restoration of the frescoes of Assisi.

That's all good news but if you want to express your views on arts coverage on our national broadcaster - what you like or dislike, what you'd like to see included - email us at the address below.

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London-based New Zealand artist Francis Upritchard has been nominated as one of the nine finalists in Britain's richest art award, the Beck's Futures, worth £65,000 ($185,000). Upritchard, who exhibited in Auckland's Ivan Anthony Gallery, has an entry which sounds relatively conventional to those of some of her colleagues: a pygmy-sized mummy that writhes, groans and stares at visitors. Two other entrants' work can't even be seen at the ICA Gallery, where the Beck's show is on display. One is marked by a legal document saying Zambian artist Carey Young's work has been "seen" by the marketing director, while Briton Nick Crowe exhibits on a web-only address. Guardian arts writer Adrian Searle calls the finalists' art grim, saying Upritchard's work looks like it belongs to a "disturbed person". The show continues at the ICA until May 18, when, presumably, the winner is announced.

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The architect who designed the Sydney Opera House has won the world's richest, most prestigious prize for architecture, the US$100,000 ($183,000) Pritzker. It has been awarded to Dane Jorn Utzon, aged 85. The Pritzker jury described the opera house as "one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world". The prize is an overdue reward to the architect, who suffered years of difficulties with the project. During construction, in 1966, Utzon resigned and left Australia. He never returned. The prize will be given to Utzon's son in Madrid on May 20. The architect is too frail to travel.

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Composer John Adams has won the Pulitzer Prize for music for his September 11-inspired work On the Transmigration of Souls, commissioned by Lorin Maazel at the New York Philharmonic. The work includes layers of car brakes screeching, cellphone messages from those who died, and words from missing persons posters. - Linda Herrick, arts editor

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Recommended: Bobby's 15 Minutes of Fame, by Robert Jahnke, Artis Gallery, Parnell; and Steve Carr, Michael Lett Gallery, 478 Karangahape Rd. Two exhibitions cool in every sense of the word - cool as in laidback, cool as in fashionable style, cool as in white walls, cool as in bright, clear glass. Bob Jahnke gets his 15 minutes by taking iconic images from Andy Warhol and making them his own by imprisoning them in and on glass and giving them one hot touch on the lips; until April 20. Steve Carr designs sculpture to be made in clear glass. His ironic rank of transparent fire extinguishers on one wall of a wide gallery is totally without function but impressive in form; until May 3. - T.J. McNamara

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Art 4 Kidz Exhibition, Grand Foyer, Auckland Museum: a celebration of original art used to illustrate kids' books published by Wendy Pye's Sunshine Books, including Joy Cowley and Margaret Mahy. Entry is free and proceeds raised from tonight's opening event from 6.30pm will go towards buying specialist mattresses for the Kidz First Burns Unit. Open to the public from tomorrow until June 22. - Linda Herrick, arts editor