New York Festivals - Gold Medal for Arts on the Air

More than 1,200 entries from 35 countries were submitted to this year’s festival, including programmes from the world’s leading broadcasters. Gudrun Heise and Breandáin O’Shea collected the arts award for a programme with a cross-cultural combination of arts stories from the worlds of music, painting and theatre.

As an international broadcaster targeting listeners all around the world, part of Deutsche Welle’s brief is to build bridges between cultures and promote international understanding with its radio and television programmes.

Arts on the Air,

Deutsche Welle’s weekly cultural magazine, has a key role to play here.

Arts on the Air

covers all the arts, with a special focus on cross-cultural ventures. In-depth interviews with and profiles of charismatic personalities from the arts world both in Europe and further afield are one of the programme’s specialities.

Arts on the Air

takes advantage of the central location of DW’s home base in the cosmopolitan city of Cologne, at the heart of Europe, to cover events on the continent and meet with top-ranking visiting artistes from all over the world.

The award-winning programme represents the typical Arts on the Air combination of European arts stories with more exotic artistes from other parts of the world, currently touring here (Paris, Istanbul, Munich and the "Silk Road Project"). It also illustrates the philosophy of covering various genres within the programme, in this case classical/ world music, art, literature/ musical and a behind-the-scenes look at what happens to costumes from performances when they are no longer needed.

The programme is presented by arts editor Gudrun Heise.

New York Festivals 2002:

The award-winning edition of

Arts on the Air:

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and his "Silk Road Project" on world tour

The idea of music being a universal language is not new. But it’s an idea that the internationally renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma is exploring in his latest project. Ma’s career has been anything but typical, mainly due to his constant search to find new ways of communicating with his audiences. Earlier projects included working with ancient Chinese music, another with the music of the Kalahari bush people in Africa. His latest work called "The Silk Road Project" was established to study the cultural, artistic and intellectual traditions of countries from easternmost Asia to Europe. Reporter Breandáin O’Shea is himself a musician and a regular Arts on the Air host and producer.

(Reporter: Breandáin O’Shea)

A portrait of Tomur Atagok, a painter in Istanbul

Tomur Atagok is one of Turkey’s leading women artists. She has carved out a niche for herself in Turkey’s vibrant art scene with her work as a modern painter. But she has also helped future generations of potential artists by establishing a university course in museum studies, the first in Turkey. Her next project is to set up what would be the first contemporary arts museum in Istanbul. She spent some years in the United States, but then went back to her home country. Still, she admits that it’s not always that easy for a woman to live in Turkey.

(Reporter: Penny Young)

"Take It Easy Schwejk" – a new musical on stage in Munich

The Good Soldier Schwejk is a beloved figure in European literature. Czech author Jaroslav Hasek wrote his comic masterpiece in the 1920s and created the somewhat naïve simpleton, whose rough exterior harbors the heart of a philosopher. Schwejk, who would rather drink than fight, has often appeared in German films and on the stage, satirizing militarism, bureaucracy and illustrating the absurdity of war. Now the book has become a musical for which German singer / songwriter Konstantin Wecker has written the music. Recently his musical "Take It Easy Schwejk" was put on stage in Munich.

(Reporter: Mariana Schroeder)

An auction of old theatre costumes in Paris

Musicals, as well as theatres and opera houses need lots of costumes, glamorous outfits and clothing to set the scene. But, what happens to all these sometimes very extravagant dresses, hats and suits once the play is not on stage any more or when they’ve simply outlived their usefulness? Well, in France, most of these costumes are auctioned off at the Drouot auction house. And, the people who come to the auction have very different reasons to make a bid for a Dr. Faust, a Shakespeare or a Rigoletto-outfit. (Reporter: Genevieve Oger)