Classic Arts Showcase

Last updated

Classic Arts Showcase
Artschannel.png
Country United States
Headquarters Burbank, California
Ownership
OwnerThe Lloyd E. Rigler – Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation
History
LaunchedMay 3, 1994;29 years ago (May 3, 1994)
Links
Website www.classicartsshowcase.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Availability
Streaming media
Streaming Watch online

Classic Arts Showcase (CAS) is a television channel in the United States promoting the fine arts. The television program content includes prepared media and recorded live performances. It is a 24-hour [1] non-commercial satellite channel broadcasting a mix of various classic arts including animation, architectural art, ballet, chamber, choral music, dance, folk art, museum art, musical theatre, opera, orchestral, recital, solo instrumental, solo vocal, and theatrical play, as well as classic film and archival documentaries. [2]

Contents

Description

Self-described on its web site as "Classical MTV", the channel features renowned artists, both professional and amateur, as well as many rare and independent performances and videos. An 8-hour mix of video clips is prepared weekly and broadcast three times daily. Text displayed on the screen provides details about the recording, and encourages viewers to gain inspiration and "...go out and feast from the buffet of arts available in your community." The explanation for not providing a schedule is they feel that surprise is an effective tactic to encourage the public to see that which is not familiar to them.

CAS launched on May 3, 1994 [3] and is completely funded by the Lloyd E. Rigler – Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation. It does not solicit any outside funding. Lloyd Rigler died in 2003, but left at least twenty years of funding to the channel. As of 2020, CAS states that there remains enough funding to maintain the channel "for decades to come." CAS is offered free to any broadcaster, or public, educational, and government access (PEG) channel on a cable television system that requests a feed, as well as direct-to-consumer via an Internet feed on the channel's Web site and through a Roku app. CAS is shown on more than 500 channels in the United States, as well as some in Canada. CAS does not publish information about channels in other countries.

Reception

The Kansas City Star television critic Aaron Barnhart has commented that "many of the selections are beyond the familiar – Pavarotti singing the Ave Maria,' I Musici belting out a 'Four Seasons' suite – but [...] there are no annoying commercials or announcers to disrupt the relaxing ambiance on this TV channel." He wrote further, "Classical-music lovers will find it hard not to get roped in by the mix of ballet, operatic singing and instrumental pieces, most of them culled from old film stock or European music videos." [4]

American art critic Alan Klevit, in a chapter of his book The Art Beat, praises the programming available on Classic Arts Showcase, and, having the television channel in mind, explains that his "favorite show is not a show," but is, in fact, "a montage of videos spanning the arts." Klevit quips that CAS is "habit-forming", and confides that he is often "unwilling to turn the set off, for fear of missing a Buster Keaton vignette, or perhaps Lillian Gish, or Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra, Rudolph Valentino as The Sheik , or some other classic [he] will treasure." [5]

Further reading

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MTV2</span> American pay television channel

MTV2 is an American pay television channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BET</span> American basic cable channel owned by Paramount

Black Entertainment Television is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by Paramount Global through CBS Entertainment Group.

NickMusic is an American pay television network and spin-off of Nickelodeon that mainly carries music video and music-related programming from younger pop artists that appeal to Nickelodeon's target audience, with some videos edited for content to meet a general TV-PG rating applied across the network's broadcast day, or replaced with a lyric video instead.

Arte is a European public service channel dedicated to culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Box (American TV channel)</span> American television network

The Box, originally named the Video Jukebox Network, was an American broadcast, cable and satellite television network that operated from 1985 to 2001. The network focused on music videos, which through a change in format in the early 1990s, were selected by viewer request via telephone; as such, unlike competing networks, the videos were not broadcast on a set rotation.

<i>Night Flight</i> (TV series) American variety television program

Night Flight is an online visual-arts magazine and variety television show that originated on cable TV network USA Network. It originally aired from 1981 to 1988 before moving to syndication in the early 1990s. The show relaunched online on nightflight.com in 2015 with original episodes that can be streamed on the subscription channel Night Flight Plus. In April 2018, it returned to cable television as a short form program airing late Friday nights/early Saturday mornings on the network IFC. It includes a mix of mainstream and alternative music videos, artist interviews, B movies, documentaries, short films, stand-up comedy and animation.

Music television is a type of television programming which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from recording artists, usually on dedicated television channels broadcasting on satellite, cable, or Streaming Platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MTV Live (TV network)</span> Television channel

MTV Live is an 24-hour American pay television music video channel owned by Paramount Global. The channel, which broadcasts exclusively in 1080i high definition, broadcasts music videos and music-related programming from Paramount owned networks MTV, MTV Classic, VH1 and CMT, along with other concert and live music programming from outside producers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MTV Tres</span> American cable, satellite and over-the-air network

MTV Tres is an American pay television network owned by Paramount Media Networks, a subsidiary of Paramount Global.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MTV Japan</span> Japanese music television channel

MTV Japan is the Japanese version of the cable television network based in Japan. It is a subsidiary of Paramount Networks Japan K.K., and was launched on November 15, 1993. It can be viewed on cable television, SKY PerfecTV!, SKY PerfecTV! e2 and IPTV.

Lloyd Eugene Rigler was an American businessman and philanthropist. As a businessman, he and a partner, Lawrence E. Deutsch, made Adolph's Meat Tenderizer a national brand. One of his notable philanthropic efforts was the establishment, in 1994, of the Classic Arts Showcase, a free, non-commercial television channel promoting the fine arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alpha Repertory Television Service</span> Defunct American cable TV channel

The Alpha Repertory Television Service (ARTS) was an American cable television network that was owned by Hearst/ABC Video Services, a joint venture between the Hearst Corporation and the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The network, which operated nightly on the channel space of Nickelodeon, focused mainly on fine arts programming. It merged with the Entertainment Channel in 1984 to become the Arts & Entertainment Network (A&E).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MTV Classic (Australian TV channel)</span> Australian television network

MTV Classic was an Australian and New Zealand subscription television music channel. The channel focused on music from the 1980s to 2000s. The channel first launched in Australia on 14 March 2004 and in New Zealand on 1 June 2011. On 1 July 2011 MTV International channels launched new logos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MTV Classic (American TV channel)</span> American pay music television channel

MTV Classic is an American pay television network owned by Paramount Media Networks. It was originally launched in 1998 as "VH1 Smooth", an adult contemporary and smooth jazz channel. It was relaunched as "VH1 Classic Rock" in 1999, with an emphasis on classic rock. On August 1, 2016, in honor of MTV's 35th anniversary, the channel was rebranded as "MTV Classic", and now exclusively displays music videos from all genres from the 1980s to the early 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Landscape Channel</span> British TV channel

The Landscape Channel was a British television channel set up by Nick Austin, co-founder of the Beggars Banquet record label, to showcase ambient videos set to classical and modern instrumental music.

The Kendall Ross Bean - Chopin Polonaise in A Flat was one of the first classical music videos to be broadcast in the United States and Canada on 24 July 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MTV Brand New (Dutch TV channel)</span> Television channel

MTV Brand New was a 24-hour specialist music channel featuring new music videos, alternative and indie music available in the Netherlands. An Italian version of the channel launched on September 14, 2003. It also launched in Germany in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rigler-Deutsch Index</span>

The Rigler and Deutsch Index of Recorded Sound, also known as the Rigler Deutsch Index, is a union catalog collocation of the U.S. holdings of 78 rpm records in the collections of the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division; the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound at the New York Public Library; Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive at Syracuse University; the Yale Collection of Historical Sound Recordings at Yale University; and the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound at Stanford University.

References

  1. Globecast Providing Playout, Distribution for Classic Arts Showcase|TV Tech
  2. Classic Arts Showcase Adds Ballet, Opera to Late Night - Los Angeles Times
  3. 'Classic Arts Showcase' Returns|Amherst Media
  4. Aaron Barnhart (January 3, 1998). "Classic Arts Showcase provides a midwinter cable treat". TV Barn. Archived from the original on February 22, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2007.
  5. Alan Klevit (April 2003). "Classical MTV in Your Home Town". The Art Beat. Llumina Press. pp. 117–19. ISBN   978-1-932303-39-1.