The Arts is a broad subdivision of culture, comprised of many expressive disciplines. In modern usage, it is a broader term than art, which usually means the visual arts (comprised of both fine art and crafts).

A precise definition of the arts can be contentious, but the following areas of activity are usually included:

More on [ The Arts ]

NPR Topics: Arts & Life

A 'Crazy Heart' Full Of Song And Sadness
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:30:00 -0500
Jeff Bridges stars as Bad Blake, an aging country music star whose love of the bottle has left him eking out a living in small-town saloons. Critic Ella Taylor says Bridges delivers an incandescently complicated performance in a graceful film that unfolds one man's day-by-day struggle with error, pain, jealousy and regret. (Recommended)
Giving DVDs That Take You To A New World
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:45:00 -0500
Critic John Powers has a theory: The best movies to give are seldom the recent hits. Instead, a good gift DVD should transport you into a different world that you can immerse yourself in over and over. Check out his favorites for this holiday season.
Griffin Dunne On The Life And Work Of His Father
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:45:00 -0500
The actor and director shares memories and discusses the work of his late father, journalist and novelist Dominick Dunne, who became famous for covering the lives and trials of celebrities. He died in August at the age of 83.

NYT > Arts

Second City Looks Back in Laughter
By LARRY ROHTER Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:43:28 -0000
The celebration of the improvisational troupe’s 50th anniversary was a reminder of how it changed the tone of comedy.
Books of The Times: Chinua Achebe’s Encounters With Many Hearts of Darkness
By DWIGHT GARNER Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:02:11 -0000
A new collection of essays from the author of “Things Fall Apart,” about Nigerian politics, language, family and racism.
Movie Review | 'Crazy Heart': A Country Crooner Whose Flight Is Now Free Fall
By A. O. SCOTT Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:05:40 -0000
“Crazy Heart,” written and directed by Scott Cooper, is a small movie perfectly scaled to the big performance at its center.

Arts & Culture

Vince Aletti: Robert Bergman, at the National Gallery of Art, P.S.1, and the Yossi Milo gallery.
Vince Aletti Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:00:00 -0000
The breathlessly over-the-top critical support that propelled the 1998 publication of Robert Bergman’s photographs of Americans on the margins (in his afterword, Meyer Schapiro called the portraits “truly profound works of art”) seemed all out of proportion to the modesty and intimacy of the . . .
Shauna Lyon: Permanent Brunch, in the East Village.
Shauna Lyon Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:00:00 -0000
paragraph class="noindent">Wouldn’t it be awesome, this East Village restaurant posits, to have bacon—five kinds!—for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Actually, everyone does that these days. So add in fluffy pancakes, seared steak and eggs sunny-side-up, smoked salmon layered with avocado on . . .
Peter Schjeldahl: A Gabriel Orozco retrospective.
Peter Schjeldahl Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:00:00 -0000
If you’ve missed out on the avant-gardish art of the past couple of decades—some people make a point of doing so—you now have a one-stop chance to catch up on the good parts. They are in a Gabriel Orozco retrospective at the . . .

Christian Science Monitor | Arts/Entertainment

India's arts and crafts: new books that offer an eye-popping overview
Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:00:00 -0000
Both traditional and avant-garde Indian imagery are given colorful display in these four richly diverse books that celebrate the continent's creativity.
2009 Gift Guide
Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:00:00 -0000
Monitor picks for TV, movies, music, and games.
Why Morocco went Hollywood
Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0000
For decades, it's been a stand-in for Saudi Arabia, Tibet, Egypt, the American West – and now, Iraq.

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