Spanish Verb Book Essays - Parts Of Speech, Spanish Verbs

Spanish Verb Book Present Tense The following section will be the present you are implying that the action is occurring at the present time. For example: Joseph reads the book. The reads in the sentence shows that Joseph is in the process of reading the book. Regular AR Infinitives acabar (de) to come after acompa?ar to accompany admirar to admire ayudar to help bailar to dance bajar to go down brillar to shine buscar to look for caminar to walk cantar to sing cenar to have supper chupar to suck cocinar to cook colabarar to collaborate coleccionar to collect comenzar to start comprar to buy conservar to conserve contestar to answer dar to give dejar to leave descansar to rest dibujar to draw doblar to turn ense?ar to teach entrar to enter escuchar to listen esquiar to ski estudiar to study evitar to avoid explicar to explain fascinar to fascinate formar to farm ganar to win gustar to like hablar to speak interesar to interest lavar to wash limpiar to clean llegar to arrive llevar to take mirar to look at neccisitar to need observar to observe olividar to forget pagar to pay for participar to participate pasar to spend time patinar to skate pesear to wish practicar to practice preguntar to ask preparar to prepare prestar to lend programar to program quedar to be located regresar to spend money renunciar to renounce respetar to respect sacar to take out tomar to take trabajar to work viajar to travel visitar to visit Canta muy bien. She sings very well. Hablo espa?ol, I speak Spansh. ?Poder ayundo tu? Can I help you? ?Te viajar? Do you travel? viajar - to travel cantar - to sing ayudar - to help hablar - to speak viajo viajamos canto cantamos ayudo ayudamos hablo hablamos viajas --- cantas --- ayudas --- hablas --- viaja viajan canta cantan ayuda ayudan habla habla hablan Regular AR's are the most common of all verbs, to use them, remove the ar ending and insert the appropriate ending on the chart: o for i ___, as for you ___, a for he/she ___, amos for we ___, an for they ___. You can also use the following chart for the respective endings. Singlar Plural o amos 1st Person as --- 2nd Person a an 3rd Person Irregular AR's dar to give estar to be Da el perro Mike. He gives the dog to Mike. Yo quiero a estar un abogado. I want to be a lawyer o for singular Ella est? mi amiga. She is my friend. Yo doy t? este carro. I give you this car. estar - to be dar - to give estoy estamos doy damos estas --- das --- esta estan da dan Irregular AR's truly have no rule, to use them you must learn the specific way each is conjugated. See the conjugations above. AR Stem-Changers (e - ie) cerrar to close empezar to begin nevar to show pensar to think (about) recomendar to reccomend Pieso el dinero. I am thinking about the money. Cierra el libro. He closes the book. Ellos empiezan a leer. They begin to read. Yo recomiendo el pollo. I recommend the chicken. pensar - to think cerrar - to close nevar - to show empezar - to begin pieso pensamos cierro cerramos nievo nevamos empiezo empezamos piesas --- cierras --- nievas --- empiezas --- piesa piensan cierra cierran nieva nievan empieza empiezan The AR stem-changers (e - ie) are a type of verb. To conjugate them you simply change the last e in the stem (which means all the parts of the verb but the ar ending) to an ie, then you remove the ar ending and add the appropriate ending. However there is one exception, in first person plural you do not change the e to an ie, you leave the stem as it is before changing. You can follow the rule below. Singlar Plural (e - ie) o (e - e) amos 1st Person (e - ie) as --- --- 2nd Person (e - ie) a (e - ie) an 3rd Person AR Stem-Changers (o - ue) almorzar to have lunch costar to cost encontrar to find recordar to remember volar to show jugar* to play * jugar is a unique verb, it is treated as the o - ue verbs are, but with a u - ue. Muestras mi tu trabajar. Show me your work. Cuesta muchos dinero. It costs much money. Juego el partido. I play the game. Encuentran un amigo. They find a friend. mostrar - to show costar - to cost volar - to show jugar* - to play muestro mostramos cuesto costamos vuelo volamos juego jugamos muestras --- cuestas --- vuelas --- juegas --- muestra muestran cuesta cuestan vuela vuelan juega juegan The AR stem-changers (o - ue) are a type of verb. To conjugate them you simply change the last o in the stem (which means all the

Usman dan Fodio and the Sokoto Caliphate

Usman dan Fodio and the Sokoto Caliphate In the 1770s, Uthman dan Fodio, still in his early 20s, began preaching in his home state of Gobir in Western African. He was one of the many Fulani Islamic scholars pushing for the revitalization of Islam in the region and the rejection of allegedly pagan practices by Muslims. Within a few decades, dan Fodio would rise to become one of the most recognized names in nineteenth-century West Africa. Hijra and Jihad As a young man, dan Fodios reputation as a scholar grew quickly. His message of reform and his criticisms of the government found fertile ground in a period of growing dissent. Gobir was one of several Hausa states in what is now northern Nigeria. There was widespread dissatisfaction in these states, especially among the Fulani pastoralists from whom dan Fodio came. dan Fodios growing popularity soon led to persecution from the Gobir government, and he withdrew, performing the hijra- a migration from  Mecca to Yathrib- as the Prophet Muhammad had also done. After his hijra, dan Fodio launched a powerful jihad in 1804, and by 1809, he had established the Sokoto caliphate that would rule over much of northern Nigeria until it was conquered by the British in 1903. Sokoto Caliphate The Sokoto Caliphate was the largest state in West Africa in the nineteenth century, but it was really fifteen smaller states or emirates united under the authority of the Sultan of Sokoto. By 1809, leadership was already in the hands of one of dan Fodios sons, Muhammad Bello, who is credited with solidifying control and establishing much of the administrative structure of this large and powerful state. Under Bellos governance, the Caliphate followed a policy of religious tolerance, enabling non-Muslims to pay a tax rather than try to enforce conversions. The policy of relative tolerance as well as attempts to ensure impartial justice helped earn the state the support of the Hausa people within the region. The support of the populace was also achieved in part through the stability the state brought and the resulting expansion of trade. Policies toward Women Uthman dan Fodio followed a relatively conservative branch of Islam, but his adherence to Islamic law ensured that within the Sokoto Caliphate women enjoyed many legal rights. dan Fodio strongly believed that women too needed to be educated in the ways of Islam. This meant he wanted women in the mosques learning. For some women, this was an advance, but certainly not for all, as he also held that women should always obey their husbands, provided that the husbands will did not run counter to the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad or Islamic laws. Uthman dan Fodio also, however, advocated against female genital cutting, which had been gaining a hold in the region at the time, ensuring that he is remembered as an advocate for women.

Assignment #2 355 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

#2 355 - Assignment Example Additionally, the family is constantly involved in wrangles and family conflicts, mainly associated with limited resource availability and distribution. One aspect worth noting with the family is the aspect of the gendered division of labor. Jay, who is the head of the family, struggles in order to provide for his big family, which comprises of his second wife, who also works though for limited pay, and, therefore only takes care of her two children, a stepson, an infant son, two adult children, their spouses, one couple of which comprises same sex individuals, and children. Jay and the two adult children all struggle with menial jobs to make ends meet in for the provision of the familys basic needs , while Jay’s second wife, despite also working, only takes care of her children while the other adult children’s spouses, work on the housekeeping duties. Considering how big the family is, with a house that is tiny, the house is rarely clean, with the large number of members as well as the struggle between the adult females in the house about the person to clean the house contributing to the house untidiness. The lead characters are individuals of 20 years and above, among whom conflict is constantly witnessed. There is no frail elderly individual in the family; however, Jay’s stepson is constantly on the wheelchair because of broken limbs from an earlier accident. From the TV show, work is presented favorably as a factor towards the contribution of provision of family’s basic needs. However, the family is presented negatively as despite the effort put by Jay and the adult children in their duties towards providing for the family, the family members is always in conflict, especially the Jay’s second wife and Jay’s other children. Modern family characters portray a critical aspect of what a modern family in America comprises. First, is an

Stereotyping of the Aging Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Stereotyping of the Aging - Research Paper Example This is usually against the senior members of society by the much younger persons. Stereotyping of aging, often known as ageism, is something that has affected people all over the world. It is a form of discrimination just like racism and sexism. It takes the same pattern as these two since it was believed that the elderly faced the same prejudice due to their old age. This paper will review some of the negative and positive stereotypes of aging, and the process of aging. As seen above, this stage is inevitable. Every living thing that has been born must go through the process of aging. This is to ensure that the life cycle is maintained as the birth, and growth of other living organisms occurs. However, over the years, theories and myths have come up about aging. They often lead the much older people to be perceived in a certain way. The manner in which they are treated by the much younger generation is not right. A name has been given to this form of treatment. It is known as ageis m. It took this name since it had the same pattern as other forms of discrimination (Branch & Palmore, 2005). Stereotyping of the aging has become a common trend especially in these modern times. In modern times, families and relatives of old people still love them. However, this love is often shown to them if they are far away from the much younger family members. This shows that not many people value what the older people have to offer (Branch & Palmore, 2005). When they die, they often think of it as a relief since they were already old, and could not fend for themselves. They think that occasional is enough to show affection and appreciation. Also, that old folks will be satisfied with seeing their children and grandchildren once in a year is something that works. This cannot be considered the correct way to go about treating all those that paved the way for others. They paved the way for everyone, so it is the responsibility of everyone in society to guide and protect them in t heir old age. Stereotyping can be defined as a set of beliefs that often guide a person in everyday life. They shape the way an individual thinks and relates to their immediate surroundings. There are a number of stereotypes about aging and the old that run the lives of many people around the world today (Branch & Palmore, 2005). There are positive and negative stereotypes that exist about aging. The negative stereotyping of the aging has often taken centre stage in the lives of many. This means that the negative beliefs that many people harbour about aging are more than the positive ones. This should not be the scenario as the older generation still have a lot to offer the world. They might be old, but what they know, and believe in could be valuable to each and every person because they are bound to age with time. Positive Beliefs One positive stereotype could be that the aging are often kind. This stereotype can lead to many people believing that at a certain age, they often thin k of putting others before themselves. This is an immensely positive mind-set for those who believe that old people are unkind to those around them, and themselves, as well (Levy, 2001). As people grow older, they get the knowledge that is often not acquired in a classroom with the use of books. This knowledge is acquired with the coming of age. They often tend to become wiser than they were when they were much younger. This can tell all those who believe

Market Invironment Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Market Invironment Project - Essay Example The R+D ensures that restaurant always offer top quality products and varied, popular flavors to its customers. The restaurant uses the innovative concept of â€Å"speed scratch cuisine†, for noticing the public on the means of obtaining faster services from their store. Preparation of products and services in Montaditos is in the presence of diners, who provide ranging natural ingredients where numerous products can be selected to create their favorite Montaditos. The restaurant works with high-speed partners and top-flight suppliers, to provide and guarantee their customers a wide range of products including drinks, salads, among other culinary items. Restaurant Services and professional employees are capable of leading the restaurant to success in South Miami market. The restaurant operates at varied times in different days of the week and makes to be reliable for all categories of customers. Form Monday to Wednesday and Sunday, the restaurant opens from eleven in the morning to eleven at night. On Thursday, the restaurant operates until midnight. (100Montaditos, 2011) On Fridays and Saturdays, the restaurant extends its services to one in the morning from eleven in the morning. Ideally, 100 Montaditos is a good place for children since it is a place of moderate noise and provides its services in entirely in casual attires. The ambience of the restaurant is also casual. The restaurant offers its services to anyone, but does not have waiters or Wi-Fi system; also, it does not offer reservations or deliveries. Moreover, the restaurant is suitable for group meetings and it is a good place for dinner and lunch. Additionally, the restaurant has a garage as well as a wheelchair for persons with such special needs. 100 Montaditos offers drinks includin g soft drinks, wine and beer. The restaurant’s management accepts payments in cash and credit card terms. Finally, it has TV as a form of

When primary participants talk to interpreters Essay Example for Free

When primary participants talk to interpreters Essay To be realistic about an interpreters role, we can examine several more examples of the way speakers interact and take turns. In this first example, І look at Ð ° turn in which Ð ° primary participant speaks directly to the Interpreter. Because examples from this case study corpus are relatively limited, І will add another example that appeared in an interpreter membership association newsletter, interpreters complain frequently about the propensity of primary participants to address utterances directly to interpreters. They imply that the primary participants should know better; they should know that interpreters only relay messages; they do not answer or speak directly to participants. Interestingly, their complaints seem to focus on the participant who is the professional or institutional representative, generally Ð ° speaker of Ð ° majority language, not the citizen or client, who speaks Ð ° minority language. Asking Ð ° question or speaking directly to an interpreter affords an opportunity to study the interaction around this dilemma, to examine different responses, and to learn whether primary participants are confirming or denying the role performance of the interpreter. S: FILMING? pointing at the researcher FILMING? І: [to the researcher] FILMING? Are you filming? R: yes І: YES [to the Student] The Student wants to know if filming has begun so he poses the question to the Interpreter. The Interpreter then asks the Researcher (who understands ASL) first using ASL, and then asking in English. Because the camera lens was fogged and the Researcher could not see clearly (Ð ° problem that cleared up), she did not respond to the signed utterance. When she heard the question, she answered in English, and the Interpreter relayed the answer to the Student. Although the Interpreter does relay this query from the Student, he is supposed to relay this question to the Professor as the other primary participant. In interpreting ideology, interpreters are not supposed to answer direct questions; rather they should pass on the question to allow the primary speaker to answer (see Metzger 1995: Chap 5). The Researcher is an ancillary participant who is supposed to be ignored because she is filming the event. But the Interpreter did relay the question on to Ð ° participant other than himself. That leaves two questions to be asked: To whom was the question directed? Why didnt the Interpreter relay the question to the Professor? Let us begin with the second question. The Interpreter did not relay the question to the Professor because she was answering the telephone and was speaking to the person who called. In conversational interaction, one primary participant can be called to attend to other matters or conversations, Ð ° perfectly ordinary occurrence in interaction. For example, when І accompany my mother to the lawyers office, the lawyer occasionally interrupts the meeting to answer Ð ° phone call or conduct Ð ° side conversation with his secretary. While he is engaged, my mother and І talk over what she and her lawyer are discussing or something else entirely. In this interaction, when the Professor is otherwise engaged, the Student can and does ask the Interpreter Ð ° question about the other activity at the meeting. So the Interpreter does not relay the question to the Professor because the question was not directed at her. Now lets consider the first question: To whom was the question directed? Because the Student could see the Professor uses the phone and because he asked the Interpreter, rather than turning around and asking the Researcher, and simply pointed in the direction of the Researcher, the question seems to be directed at the Interpreter. Most likely, the Student thought that the Interpreter could answer because video cameras generally have lights that come on when filming my point here is that Ð ° primary participant spoke directly to the Interpreter when the other primary participant was not attending to the interaction and had absented herself from the interaction with the Student. Participants act and react to interpreters as potential conversational partners and seem unaware that the task of interpreting should preclude treating an interpreter as Ð ° potential interlocutor. To primary participants, then, it must seem natural, even ordinary, to interact with interpreters as capable human beings who can answer and ask questions. This might suggest to interpreters that primary participants are never going to act as though interpreters are not also real participants in the interaction. It also suggests that interacting directly with an interpreter does not come about arbitrarily, but rather because of other social norms that govern interaction when Ð ° primary participant is interrupted and moves the focus off the reason and purpose for coming together. My next example is drawn from an article in Views (January 1998), the newsletter of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Ð ° North American association of sign language interpreters. In this article, the author presented an example similar to the previous one: Ð ° primary speaker asks an interpreter Ð ° question. The situation was Ð ° doctors office where Ð ° Deaf patient was being examined. During the examination the doctor turns to the interpreter and asks, How did you get into the field? Is sign language hard to learning? The dilemma presented to readers was that the interpreter was asked Ð ° question by the doctor but was not sure how to handle this situation or who should answer the question. The author suggested that determining Ð ° solution is Ð ° matter of ethics and that knowing ways of solving ethical dilemmas assists interpreters, particularly beginning interpreters, in arriving at good solutions. Although І agree that student interpreters should be trained to solve ethical dilemmas, under the scrutiny of discourse analysis, this particular phenomenon might not be an ethical problem but rather an ordinary happenstance in the interactional process of discourse. We can begin by noting that no other information is provided about the meeting and its progress. The doctors question is presented in isolation. As the preceding example demonstrated, it matters what the other participants are doing. We do not know what the patient is doing, what was said prior, or what is said afterward. This is the point about studying interpreters in actual interaction. Utterances do not arise on their own but are created in and reflected by the ongoing situation, and understanding or interpreting utterances is based on and is particular to that context. The patient could be changing clothes, could be having her temperature taken, or could be in the bathroom. The next thing to consider is that whether or not people are engaged in purposeful activity that may have serious consequences, such as Ð ° medical exam, they also monitor relationships, attitudes, and feelings. When doctors examine patients, it is not out of the ordinary to engage in small talk which seems to put everyone at ease. Nor is it unusual, when patients are unavailable for conversation, for doctors to engage in brief conversations with other person(s) in the room. Once, while my teenager was having her temperature taken, Ð ° doctor turned and began chatting with me about the extreme heat we were experiencing that summer. In general, all the participants engaged in interaction are available for conversation (Goffman 1967). In some ways, professionals, such as doctors and lawyers, experience Ð ° sense of being hosts within their spaces and thus attempt to acknowledge all the participants within the space, either by conversation or nonverbally.

naturalism :: essays research papers

Naturalism in THE HURRICANE   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Naturalism is the theory that one's surroundings and background determines their fate. THE HURRICNE has many naturalistic elements. Rubin Carter's background and surroundings are what determined his fate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Trouble started very young for Rubin Carter. When he was just a boy he was sent to a juvenile home. Rubid didn nothing wrong, but because he was black it made it easier for him to get accused. As Carter got older, he grew stonger and wiser. He became a boxer. Soon, hte name stayed with him, Rubin the Hurricane Carter. He was an excellent boxer and had many things going for him. In a bar one night two men were shot and killed. But because Carter was black it was very easy for him to be accused. Rubin lost his case and went to prison.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Hurricane has many naturalistic elements. The fate of Rubin Carter was determined by his background and surroundings. Because Carter was black, it made it easier for him to be accused of crimes wheterher he committed them or not. Therefore, based upon Carter's surroundings and background, his fate of being accused of a crime he did not committ and going to prison for it showes that THE HURRICANE has naturalistic elements. Naturalism is the theory that one's fate is determined by their surroundings. Antying that happnes to someone is due to everything around them. Such things as thier family, where they live, where they work, and so on. THE JUNGLE is an excellent example of a naturalistic piece of literature. Many of the characters fateswere determined by their surroundings.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  THE JUNGLE is a very good example of a naturalistic piece of literature. The characters in the novel all have a fate which is determined by their surroundgins. One example is Jurgis. His fate of becoming an addict to alcohol was caused by everything surrounding him. Things that happened to his family and at his work caused him to start drinking. Many things went wrong at work. It was a very bad environment for him to work in. His injury kept him away from work which motivated him to drink. The death of his wife, Ona, and his child, Little Antanas also motivated Jurgis to start drinking.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another example is Little Antanas. His fate, which was death, was caused due to the poor living conditions that surrounded him. Everything that surrounded him was filthey.

American culture Essay

The arts, more than other features of culture, provide avenues for the expression of imagination and personal vision. They offer a range of emotional and intellectual pleasures to consumers of art and are an important way in which a culture represents itself. There has long been a Western tradition distinguishing those arts that appeal to the multitude, such as popular music, from those—such as classical orchestral music—normally available to the elite of learning and taste. Popular art forms are usually seen as more representative American products. In the United States in the recent past, there has been a blending of popular and elite art forms, as all the arts experienced a period of remarkable cross-fertilization. Because popular art forms are so widely distributed, arts of all kinds have prospered. The arts in the United States express the many faces and the enormous creative range of the American people. Especially since World War II, American innovations and the immense energy displayed in literature, dance, and music have made American cultural works world famous. Arts in the United States have become internationally prominent in ways that are unparalleled in history. American art forms during the second half of the 20th century often defined the styles and qualities that the rest of the world emulated. At the end of the 20th century, American art was considered equal in quality and vitality to art produced in the rest of the world. Throughout the 20th century, American arts have grown to incorporate new visions and voices. Much of this new artistic energy came in the wake of America’s emergence as a superpower after World War II. But it was also due to the growth of New York City as an important center for publishing and the arts, and the immigration of artists and intellectuals fleeing fascism in Europe before and during the war. An outpouring of talent also followed the civil rights and protest movements of the 1960s, as cultural discrimination against blacks, women, and other groups diminished. American arts flourish in many places and receive support from private foundations, large corporations, local governments, federal agencies, museums, galleries, and individuals. What is considered worthy of support often depends on definitions of quality and of what constitutes art. This is a tricky subject when the popular arts are increasingly incorporated into the domain of the fine arts and new forms such as performance art and conceptual art appear. As a result, defining what is art affects what students are taught about past traditions (for example, Native American tent paintings, oral traditions, and slave narratives) and what is produced in the future. While some practitioners, such as studio artists, are more vulnerable to these definitions because they depend on financial support to exercise their talents, others, such as poets and photographers, are less immediately constrained. Artists operate in a world where those who theorize and critique their work have taken on an increasingly important role. Audiences are influenced by a variety of intermediaries—critics, the schools, foundations that offer grants, the National Endowment for the Arts, gallery owners, publishers, and theater producers. In some areas, such as the performing arts, popular audiences may ultimately define success. In other arts, such as painting and sculpture, success is far more dependent on critics and a few, often wealthy, art collectors. Writers depend on publishers and on the public for their success. Unlike their predecessors, who relied on formal criteria and appealed to aesthetic judgments, critics at the end of the 20th century leaned more toward popular tastes, taking into account groups previously ignored and valuing the merger of popular and elite forms. These critics often relied less on aesthetic judgments than on social measures and were eager to place artistic productions in the context of the time and social conditions in which they were created. Whereas earlier critics attempted to create an American tradition of high art, later critics used art as a means to give power and approval to nonelite groups who were previously not considered worthy of including in the nation’s artistic heritage. Not so long ago, culture and the arts were assumed to be an unalterable inheritance—the accumulated wisdom and highest forms of achievement that were established in the past. In the 20th century generally, and certainly since World War II, artists have been boldly destroying older traditions in sculpture, painting, dance, music, and literature. The arts have changed rapidly, with one movement replacing another in quick succession. a) Visual arts. The visual arts have traditionally included forms of expression that appeal to the eyes through painted surfaces, and to the sense of space through carved or molded materials. In the 19th century, photographs were added to the paintings, drawings, and sculpture that make up the visual arts. The visual arts were further augmented in the 20th century by the addition of other materials, such as found objects. These changes were accompanied by a profound alteration in tastes, as earlier emphasis on realistic representation of people, objects, and landscapes made way for a greater range of imaginative forms. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American art was considered inferior to European art. Despite noted American painters such as Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, and John Marin, American visual arts barely had an international presence. American art began to flourish during the Great Depression of the 1930s as New Deal government programs provided support to artists along with other sectors of the population. Artists connected with each other and developed a sense of common purpose through programs of the Public Works Administration, such as the Federal Art Project, as well as programs sponsored by the Treasury Department. Most of the art of the period, including painting, photography, and mural work, focused on the plight of the American people during the depression, and most artists painted real people in difficult circumstances. Artists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Ben Shahn expressed the suffering of ordinary people through their representations of struggling farmers and workers. While artists such as Benton and Grant Wood focused on rural life, many painters of the 1930s and 1940s depicted the multicultural life of the American city. Jacob Lawrence, for example, re-created the history and lives of African Americans. Other artists, such as Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper, tried to use human figures to describe emotional states such as loneliness and despair. Abstract Expressionism. Shortly after World War II, American art began to garner worldwide attention and admiration. This change was due to the innovative fervor of abstract expressionism in the 1950s and to subsequent modern art movements and artists. The abstract expressionists of the mid-20th century broke from the realist and figurative tradition set in the 1930s. They emphasized their connection to international artistic visions rather than the particularities of people and place, and most abstract expressionists did not paint human figures (although artist Willem de Kooning did portrayals of women). Color, shape, and movement dominated the canvases of abstract expressionists. Some artists broke with the Western art tradition by adopting innovative painting styles—during the 1950s Jackson Pollock â€Å"painted† by dripping paint on canvases without the use of brushes, while the paintings of Mark Rothko often consisted of large patches of color that seem to vibrate. Abstract expressionists felt alienated from their surrounding culture and used art to challenge society’s conventions. The work of each artist was quite individual and distinctive, but all the artists identified with the radicalism of artistic creativity. The artists were eager to challenge conventions and limits on expression in order to redefine the nature of art. Their radicalism came from liberating themselves from the confining artistic traditions of the past. The most notable activity took place in New York City, which became one of the world’s most important art centers during the second half of the 20th century. The radical fervor and inventiveness of the abstract expressionists, their frequent association with each other in New York City’s Greenwich Village, and the support of a group of gallery owners and dealers turned them into an artistic movement. Also known as the New York School, the participants included Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, and Arshile Gorky, in addition to Rothko and Pollock. The members of the New York School came from diverse backgrounds such as the American Midwest and Northwest, Armenia, and Russia, bringing an international flavor to the group and its artistic visions. They hoped to appeal to art audiences everywhere, regardless of culture, and they felt connected to the radical innovations introduced earlier in the 20th century by European artists such as Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp. Some of the artists—Hans Hofmann, Gorky, Rothko, and de Kooning—were not born in the United States, but all the artists saw themselves as part of an international creative movement and an aesthetic rebellion. As artists felt released from the boundaries and conventions of the past and free to emphasize expressiveness and innovation, the abstract expressionists gave way to other innovative styles in American art. Beginning in the 1930s Joseph Cornell created hundreds of boxed assemblages, usually from found objects, with each based on a single theme to create a mood of contemplation and sometimes of reverence. Cornell’s boxes exemplify the modern fascination with individual vision, art that breaks down boundaries between forms such as painting and sculpture, and the use of everyday objects toward a new end. Other artists, such as Robert Rauschenberg, combined disparate objects to create large, collage-like sculptures known as combines in the 1950s. Jasper Johns, a painter, sculptor, and printmaker, recreated countless familiar objects, most memorably the American flag. The most prominent American artistic style to follow abstract expressionism was the pop art movement that began in the 1950s. Pop art attempted to connect traditional art and popular culture by using images from mass culture. To shake viewers out of their preconceived notions about art, sculptor Claes Oldenburg used everyday objects such as pillows and beds to create witty, soft sculptures. Roy Lichtenstein took this a step further by elevating the techniques of commercial art, notably cartooning, into fine art worthy of galleries and museums. Lichtenstein’s large, blown-up cartoons fill the surface of his canvases with grainy black dots and question the existence of a distinct realm of high art. These artists tried to make their audiences see ordinary objects in a refreshing new way, thereby breaking down the conventions that formerly defined what was worthy of artistic representation. Probably the best-known pop artist, and a leader in the movement, was Andy Warhol, whose images of a Campbell’s soup can and of the actress Marilyn Monroe explicitly eroded the boundaries between the art world and mass culture. Warhol also cultivated his status as a celebrity. He worked in film as a director and producer to break down the boundaries between traditional and popular art. Unlike the abstract expressionists, whose conceptual works were often difficult to understand, Andy Warhol’s pictures, and his own face, were instantly recognizable. Conceptual art, as it came to be known in the 1960s, like its predecessors, sought to break free of traditional artistic associations. In conceptual art, as practiced by Sol LeWitt and Joseph Kosuth, concept takes precedent over actual object, by stimulating thought rather than following an art tradition based on conventional standards of beauty and artisanship. Modern artists changed the meaning of traditional visual arts and brought a new imaginative dimension to ordinary experience. Art was no longer viewed as separate and distinct, housed in museums as part of a historical inheritance, but as a continuous creative process. This emphasis on constant change, as well as on the ordinary and mundane, reflected a distinctly American democratizing perspective. Viewing art in this way removed the emphasis from technique and polished performance, and many modern artworks and experiences became more about expressing ideas than about perfecting finished products. Photography. Photography is probably the most democratic modern art form because it can be, and is, practiced by most Americans. Since 1888, when George Eastman developed the Kodak camera that allowed anyone to take pictures, photography has struggled to be recognized as a fine art form. In the early part of the 20th century, photographer, editor, and artistic impresario Alfred Stieglitz established 291, a gallery in New York City, with fellow photographer Edward Steichen, to showcase the works of photographers and painters. They also published a magazine called Camera Work to increase awareness about photographic art. In the United States, photographic art had to compete with the widely available commercial photography in news and fashion magazines. By the 1950s the tradition of photojournalism, which presented news stories primarily with photographs, had produced many outstanding works. In 1955 Steichen, who was director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, called attention to this work in an exhibition called The Family of Man. Throughout the 20th century, most professional photographers earned their living as portraitists or photojournalists, not as artists. One of the most important exceptions was Ansel Adams, who took majestic photographs of the Western American landscape. Adams used his art to stimulate social awareness and to support the conservation cause of the Sierra Club. He helped found the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in 1940, and six years later helped establish the photography department at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco (now the San Francisco Art Institute). He also held annual photography workshops at Yosemite National Park from 1955 to 1981 and wrote a series of influential books on photographic technique. Adams’s elegant landscape photography was only one small stream in a growing current of interest in photography as an art form. Early in the 20th century, teacher-turned-photographer Lewis Hine established a documentary tradition in photography by capturing actual people, places, and events. Hine photographed urban conditions and workers, including child laborers. Along with their artistic value, the photographs often implicitly called for social reform. In the 1930s and 1940s, photographers joined with other depression-era artists supported by the federal government to create a hotographic record of rural America. Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Arthur Rothstein, among others, produced memorable and widely reproduced portraits of rural poverty and American distress during the Great Depression and during the dust storms of the period. In 1959, after touring the United States for two years, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank published The Americans, one of the landmarks of documentary photography. His photographs of everyday life in America introduced viewers to a depressing, and often depressed, America that existed in the midst of prosperity and world power. Photographers continued to search for new photographic viewpoints. This search was perhaps most disturbingly embodied in the work of Diane Arbus. Her photos of mental patients and her surreal depictions of Americans altered the viewer’s relationship to the photograph. Arbus emphasized artistic alienation and forced viewers to stare at images that often made them uncomfortable, thus changing the meaning of the ordinary reality that photographs are meant to capture. American photography continues to flourish. The many variants of art photography and socially conscious documentary photography are widely available in galleries, books, and magazines. A host of other visual arts thrive, although they are far less connected to traditional fine arts than photography. Decorative arts include, but are not limited to, art glass, furniture, jewelry, pottery, metalwork, and quilts. Often exhibited in craft galleries and studios, these decorative arts rely on ideals of beauty in shape and color as well as an appreciation of well-executed crafts. Some of these forms are also developed commercially. The decorative arts provide a wide range of opportunity for creative expression and have become a means for Americans to actively participate in art and to purchase art for their homes that is more affordable than works produced by many contemporary fine artists. 4. Performing arts As in other cultural spheres, the performing arts in the United States in the 20th century increasingly blended traditional and popular art forms. The classical performing arts—music, opera, dance, and theater—were not a widespread feature of American culture in the first half of the 20th century. These arts were generally imported from or strongly influenced by Europe and were mainly appreciated by the wealthy and well educated. Traditional art usually referred to classical forms in ballet and opera, orchestral or chamber music, and serious drama. The distinctions between traditional music and popular music were firmly drawn in most areas. During the 20th century, the American performing arts began to incorporate wider groups of people. The African American community produced great musicians who became widely known around the country. Jazz and blues singers such as Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday spread their sounds to black and white audiences. In the 1930s and 1940s, the swing music of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller adapted jazz to make a unique American music that was popular around the country. The American performing arts also blended Latin American influences beginning in the 20th century. Between 1900 and 1940, Latin American dances, such as the tango from Argentina and the rumba from Cuba, were introduced into the United States. In the 1940s a fusion of Latin and jazz elements was stimulated first by the Afro-Cuban mambo and later on by the Brazilian bossa nova. Throughout the 20th century, dynamic classical institutions in the United States attracted international talent. Noted Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine established the short-lived American Ballet Company in the 1930s; later he founded the company that in the 1940s would become the New York City Ballet. The American Ballet Theatre, also established during the 1940s, brought in non-American dancers as well. By the 1970s this company had attracted Soviet defector Mikhail Baryshnikov, an internationally acclaimed dancer who served as the company’s artistic director during the 1980s. In classical music, influential Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, who composed symphonies using innovative musical styles, moved to the United States in 1939. German-born pianist, composer, and conductor Andre Previn, who started out as a jazz pianist in the 1940s, went on to conduct a number of distinguished American symphony orchestras. Another Soviet, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, became conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D. C. , in 1977. Some of the most innovative artists in the first half of the 20th century successfully incorporated new forms into classical traditions. Composers George Gershwin and Aaron Copland, and dancer Isadora Duncan were notable examples. Gershwin combined jazz and spiritual music with classical in popular works such as Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935). Copland developed a unique style that was influenced by jazz and American folk music. Early in the century, Duncan redefined dance along more expressive and free-form lines. Some artists in music and dance, such as composer John Cage and dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, were even more experimental. During the 1930s Cage worked with electronically produced sounds and sounds made with everyday objects such as pots and pans. He even invented a new kind of piano. During the late 1930s, avant-garde choreographer Cunningham began to collaborate with Cage on a number of projects. Perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most popular, American innovation was the Broadway musical, which also became a movie staple. Beginning in the 1920s, the Broadway musical combined music, dance, and dramatic performance in ways that surpassed the older vaudeville shows and musical revues but without being as complex as European grand opera. By the 1960s, this American musical tradition was well established and had produced extraordinary works by important musicians and lyricists such as George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Jerome Kern, and Oscar Hammerstein II. These productions required an immense effort to coordinate music, drama, and dance. Because of this, the musical became the incubator of an American modern dance tradition that produced some of America’s greatest choreographers, among them Jerome Robbins, Gene Kelly, and Bob Fosse. In the 1940s and 1950s the American musical tradition was so dynamic that it attracted outstanding classically trained musicians such as Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein composed the music for West Side Story, an updated version of Romeo and Juliet set in New York that became an instant classic in 1957. The following year, Bernstein became the first American-born conductor to lead a major American orchestra, the New York Philharmonic. He was an international sensation who traveled the world as an ambassador of the American style of conducting. He brought the art of classical music to the public, especially through his â€Å"Young People’s Concerts,† television shows that were seen around the world. Bernstein used the many facets of the musical tradition as a force for change in the music world and as a way of bringing attention to American innovation. In many ways, Bernstein embodied a transformation of American music that began in the 1960s. The changes that took place during the 1960s and 1970s resulted from a significant increase in funding for the arts and their increased availability to larger audiences. New York City, the American center for art performances, experienced an artistic explosion in the 1960s and 1970s. Experimental off-Broadway theaters opened, new ballet companies were established that often emphasized modern forms or blended modern with classical (Martha Graham was an especially important influence), and an experimental music scene developed that included composers such as Philip Glass and performance groups such as the Guarneri String Quartet. Dramatic innovation also continued to expand with the works of playwrights such as Edward Albee, Tony Kushner, and David Mamet. As the variety of performances expanded, so did the serious crossover between traditional and popular music forms. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, an expanded repertoire of traditional arts was being conveyed to new audiences. Popular music and jazz could be heard in formal settings such as Carnegie Hall, which had once been restricted to classical music, while the Brooklyn Academy of Music became a venue for experimental music, exotic and ethnic dance presentations, and traditional productions of grand opera. Innovative producer Joseph Papp had been staging Shakespeare in Central Park since the 1950s. Boston conductor Arthur Fiedler was playing a mixed repertoire of classical and popular favorites to large audiences, often outdoors, with the Boston Pops Orchestra. By the mid-1970s the United States had several world-class symphony orchestras, including those in Chicago; New York; Cleveland, Ohio; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even grand opera was affected. Once a specialized taste that often required extensive knowledge, opera in the United States increased in popularity as the roster of respected institutions grew to include companies in Seattle, Washington; Houston, Texas; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. American composers such as John Adams and Philip Glass began composing modern operas in a new minimalist style during the 1970s and 1980s. The crossover in tastes also influenced the Broadway musical, probably America’s most durable music form. Starting in the 1960s, rock music became an ingredient in musical productions such as Hair (1967). By the 1990s, it had become an even stronger presence in musicals such as Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk (1996), which used African American music and dance traditions, and Rent (1996) a modern, rock version of the classic opera La Boheme. This updating of the musical opened the theater to new ethnic audiences who had not previously attended Broadway shows, as well as to young audiences who had been raised on rock music. Performances of all kinds have become more available across the country. This is due to both the sheer increase in the number of performance groups as well as to advances in transportation. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the number of major American symphonies doubled, the number of resident theaters increased fourfold, and the number of dance companies increased tenfold. At the same time, planes made it easier for artists to travel. Artists and companies regularly tour, and they expand the audiences for individual artists such as performance artist Laurie Anderson and opera singer Jessye Norman, for musical groups such as the Juilliard Quartet, and for dance troupes such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Full-scale theater productions and musicals first presented on Broadway now reach cities across the country. The United States, once a provincial outpost with a limited European tradition in performance, has become a flourishing center for the performing arts. . Arts and letters The arts, more than other features of culture, provide avenues for the expression of imagination and personal vision. They offer a range of emotional and intellectual pleasures to consumers of art and are an important way in which a culture represents itself. There has long been a Western tradition distinguishing those arts that appeal to the multitude, such as popul ar music, from those—such as classical orchestral music—normally available to the elite of learning and taste. Popular art forms are usually seen as more representative American products. In the United States in the recent past, there has been a blending of popular and elite art forms, as all the arts experienced a period of remarkable cross-fertilization. Because popular art forms are so widely distributed, arts of all kinds have prospered. The arts in the United States express the many faces and the enormous creative range of the American people. Especially since World War II, American innovations and the immense energy displayed in literature, dance, and music have made American cultural works world famous. Arts in the United States have become internationally prominent in ways that are unparalleled in history. American art forms during the second half of the 20th century often defined the styles and qualities that the rest of the world emulated. At the end of the 20th century, American art was considered equal in quality and vitality to art produced in the rest of the world. Throughout the 20th century, American arts have grown to incorporate new visions and voices. Much of this new artistic energy came in the wake of America’s emergence as a superpower after World War II. But it was also due to the growth of New York City as an important center for publishing and the arts, and the immigration of artists and intellectuals fleeing fascism in Europe before and during the war. An outpouring of talent also followed the civil rights and protest movements of the 1960s, as cultural discrimination against blacks, women, and other groups diminished. American arts flourish in many places and receive support from private foundations, large corporations, local governments, federal agencies, museums, galleries, and individuals. What is considered worthy of support often depends on definitions of quality and of what constitutes art. This is a tricky subject when the popular arts are increasingly incorporated into the domain of the fine arts and new forms such as performance art and conceptual art appear. As a result, defining what is art affects what students are taught about past traditions (for example, Native American tent paintings, oral traditions, and slave narratives) and what is produced in the future. While some practitioners, such as studio artists, are more vulnerable to these definitions because they depend on financial support to exercise their talents, others, such as poets and photographers, are less immediately constrained. Artists operate in a world where those who theorize and critique their work have taken on an increasingly important role. Audiences are influenced by a variety of intermediaries—critics, the schools, foundations that offer grants, the National Endowment for the Arts, gallery owners, publishers, and theater producers. In some areas, such as the performing arts, popular audiences may ultimately define success. In other arts, such as painting and sculpture, success is far more dependent on critics and a few, often wealthy, art collectors. Writers depend on publishers and on the public for their success. Unlike their predecessors, who relied on formal criteria and appealed to aesthetic judgments, critics at the end of the 20th century leaned more toward popular tastes, taking into account groups previously ignored and valuing the merger of popular and elite forms. These critics ften relied less on aesthetic judgments than on social measures and were eager to place artistic productions in the context of the time and social conditions in which they were created. Whereas earlier critics attempted to create an American tradition of high art, later critics used art as a means to give power and approval to nonelite groups who were previously not considered worthy of including in the nation’s artisti c heritage. Not so long ago, culture and the arts were assumed to be an unalterable inheritance—the accumulated wisdom and highest forms of achievement that were established in the past. In the 20th century generally, and certainly since World War II, artists have been boldly destroying older traditions in sculpture, painting, dance, music, and literature. The arts have changed rapidly, with one movement replacing another in quick succession. a) Visual arts. The visual arts have traditionally included forms of expression that appeal to the eyes through painted surfaces, and to the sense of space through carved or molded materials. In the 19th century, photographs were added to the paintings, drawings, and sculpture that make up the visual arts. The visual arts were further augmented in the 20th century by the addition of other materials, such as found objects. These changes were accompanied by a profound alteration in tastes, as earlier emphasis on realistic representation of people, objects, and landscapes made way for a greater range of imaginative forms. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American art was considered inferior to European art. Despite noted American painters such as Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, and John Marin, American visual arts barely had an international presence. American art began to flourish during the Great Depression of the 1930s as New Deal government programs provided support to artists along with other sectors of the population. Artists connected with each other and developed a sense of common purpose through programs of the Public Works Administration, such as the Federal Art Project, as well as programs sponsored by the Treasury Department. Most of the art of the period, including painting, photography, and mural work, focused on the plight of the American people during the depression, and most artists painted real people in difficult circumstances. Artists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Ben Shahn expressed the suffering of ordinary people through their representations of struggling farmers and workers. While artists such as Benton and Grant Wood focused on rural life, many painters of the 1930s and 1940s depicted the multicultural life of the American city. Jacob Lawrence, for example, re-created the history and lives of African Americans. Other artists, such as Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper, tried to use human figures to describe emotional states such as loneliness and despair. Abstract Expressionism. Shortly after World War II, American art began to garner worldwide attention and admiration. This change was due to the innovative fervor of abstract expressionism in the 1950s and to subsequent modern art movements and artists. The abstract expressionists of the mid-20th century broke from the realist and figurative tradition set in the 1930s. They emphasized their connection to international artistic visions rather than the particularities of people and place, and most abstract expressionists did not paint human figures (although artist Willem de Kooning did portrayals of women). Color, shape, and movement dominated the canvases of abstract expressionists. Some artists broke with the Western art tradition by adopting innovative painting styles—during the 1950s Jackson Pollock â€Å"painted† by dripping paint on canvases without the use of brushes, while the paintings of Mark Rothko often consisted of large patches of color that seem to vibrate. Abstract expressionists felt alienated from their surrounding culture and used art to challenge society’s conventions. The work of each artist was quite individual and distinctive, but all the artists identified with the radicalism of artistic creativity. The artists were eager to challenge conventions and limits on expression in order to redefine the nature of art. Their radicalism came from liberating themselves from the confining artistic traditions of the past. The most notable activity took place in New York City, which became one of the world’s most important art centers during the second half of the 20th century. The radical fervor and inventiveness of the abstract expressionists, their frequent association with each other in New York City’s Greenwich Village, and the support of a group of gallery owners and dealers turned them into an artistic movement. Also known as the New York School, the participants included Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, and Arshile Gorky, in addition to Rothko and Pollock. The members of the New York School came from diverse backgrounds such as the American Midwest and Northwest, Armenia, and Russia, bringing an international flavor to the group and its artistic visions. They hoped to appeal to art audiences everywhere, regardless of culture, and they felt connected to the radical innovations introduced earlier in the 20th century by European artists such as Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp. Some of the artists—Hans Hofmann, Gorky, Rothko, and de Kooning—were not born in the United States, but all the artists saw themselves as part of an international creative movement and an aesthetic rebellion. As artists felt released from the boundaries and conventions of the past and free to emphasize expressiveness and innovation, the abstract expressionists gave way to other innovative styles in American art. Beginning in the 1930s Joseph Cornell created hundreds of boxed assemblages, usually from found objects, with each based on a single theme to create a mood of contemplation and sometimes of reverence. Cornell’s boxes exemplify the modern fascination with individual vision, art that breaks down boundaries between forms such as painting and sculpture, and the use of everyday objects toward a new end. Other artists, such as Robert Rauschenberg, combined disparate objects to create large, collage-like sculptures known as combines in the 1950s. Jasper Johns, a painter, sculptor, and printmaker, recreated countless familiar objects, most memorably the American flag. The most prominent American artistic style to follow abstract expressionism was the pop art movement that began in the 1950s. Pop art attempted to connect traditional art and popular culture by using images from mass culture. To shake viewers out of their preconceived notions about art, sculptor Claes Oldenburg used everyday objects such as pillows and beds to create witty, soft sculptures. Roy Lichtenstein took this a step further by elevating the techniques of commercial art, notably cartooning, into fine art worthy of galleries and museums. Lichtenstein’s large, blown-up cartoons fill the surface of his canvases with grainy black dots and question the existence of a distinct realm of high art. These artists tried to make their audiences see ordinary objects in a refreshing new way, thereby breaking down the conventions that formerly defined what was worthy of artistic representation. Probably the best-known pop artist, and a leader in the movement, was Andy Warhol, whose images of a Campbell’s soup can and of the actress Marilyn Monroe explicitly eroded the boundaries between the art world and mass culture. Warhol also cultivated his status as a celebrity. He worked in film as a director and producer to break down the boundaries between traditional and opular art. Unlike the abstract expressionists, whose conceptual works were often difficult to understand, Andy Warhol’s pictures, and his own face, were instantly recognizable. Conceptual art, as it came to be known in the 1960s, like its predecessors, sought to break free of traditional artistic associations. In conceptual art, as practiced by Sol LeWitt and Joseph Kosuth, concept takes precedent over actual object, by stimulating thought rather than following an art tradition based on conventional standards of beauty and artisanship. Modern artists changed the meaning of traditional visual arts and brought a new imaginative dimension to ordinary experience. Art was no longer viewed as separate and distinct, housed in museums as part of a historical inheritance, but as a continuous creative process. This emphasis on constant change, as well as on the ordinary and mundane, reflected a distinctly American democratizing perspective. Viewing art in this way removed the emphasis from technique and polished performance, and many modern artworks and experiences became more about expressing ideas than about perfecting finished products. Photography. Photography is probably the most democratic modern art form because it can be, and is, practiced by most Americans. Since 1888, when George Eastman developed the Kodak camera that allowed anyone to take pictures, photography has struggled to be recognized as a fine art form. In the early part of the 20th century, photographer, editor, and artistic impresario Alfred Stieglitz established 291, a gallery in New York City, with fellow photographer Edward Steichen, to showcase the works of photographers and painters. They also published a magazine called Camera Work to increase awareness about photographic art. In the United States, photographic art had to compete with the widely available commercial photography in news and fashion magazines. By the 1950s the tradition of photojournalism, which presented news stories primarily with photographs, had produced many outstanding works. In 1955 Steichen, who was director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, called attention to this work in an exhibition called The Family of Man. Throughout the 20th century, most professional photographers earned their living as portraitists or photojournalists, not as artists. One of the most important exceptions was Ansel Adams, who took majestic photographs of the Western American landscape. Adams used his art to stimulate social awareness and to support the conservation cause of the Sierra Club. He helped found the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in 1940, and six years later helped establish the photography department at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco (now the San Francisco Art Institute). He also held annual photography workshops at Yosemite National Park from 1955 to 1981 and wrote a series of influential books on photographic technique. Adams’s elegant landscape photography was only one small stream in a growing current of interest in photography as an art form. Early in the 20th century, teacher-turned-photographer Lewis Hine established a documentary tradition in photography by capturing actual people, places, and events. Hine photographed urban conditions and workers, including child laborers. Along with their artistic value, the photographs often implicitly called for social reform. In the 1930s and 1940s, photographers joined with other depression-era artists supported by the federal government to create a photographic record of rural America. Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Arthur Rothstein, among others, produced memorable and widely reproduced portraits of rural poverty and American distress during the Great Depression and during the dust storms of the period. In 1959, after touring the United States for two years, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank published The Americans, one of the landmarks of documentary photography. His photographs of everyday life in America introduced viewers to a depressing, and often depressed, America that existed in the midst of prosperity and world power. Photographers continued to search for new photographic viewpoints. This search was perhaps most disturbingly embodied in the work of Diane Arbus. Her photos of mental patients and her surreal depictions of Americans altered the viewer’s relationship to the photograph. Arbus emphasized artistic alienation and forced viewers to stare at images that often made them uncomfortable, thus changing the meaning of the ordinary reality that photographs are meant to capture. American photography continues to flourish. The many variants of art photography and socially conscious documentary photography are widely available in galleries, books, and magazines. A host of other visual arts thrive, although they are far less connected to traditional fine arts than photography. Decorative arts include, but are not limited to, art glass, furniture, jewelry, pottery, metalwork, and quilts. Often exhibited in craft galleries and studios, these decorative arts rely on ideals of beauty in shape and color as well as an appreciation of well-executed crafts. Some of these forms are also developed commercially. The decorative arts provide a wide range of opportunity for creative expression and have become a means for Americans to actively participate in art and to purchase art for their homes that is more affordable than works produced by many contemporary fine artists. . Performing arts As in other cultural spheres, the performing arts in the United States in the 20th century increasingly blended traditional and popular art forms. The classical performing arts—music, opera, dance, and theater—were not a widespread feature of American culture in the first half of the 20th century. These arts were generally imported from or strongly influenced by Europe and were mainly appreciated by the wealthy and well educated. Traditional art usually referred to classical forms in ballet and opera, orchestral or chamber music, and serious drama. The distinctions between traditional music and popular music were firmly drawn in most areas. During the 20th century, the American performing arts began to incorporate wider groups of people. The African American community produced great musicians who became widely known around the country. Jazz and blues singers such as Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday spread their sounds to black and white audiences. In the 1930s and 1940s, the swing music of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller adapted jazz to make a unique American music that was popular around the country. The American performing arts also blended Latin American influences beginning in the 20th century. Between 1900 and 1940, Latin American dances, such as the tango from Argentina and the rumba from Cuba, were introduced into the United States. In the 1940s a fusion of Latin and jazz elements was stimulated first by the Afro-Cuban mambo and later on by the Brazilian bossa nova. Throughout the 20th century, dynamic classical institutions in the United States attracted international talent. Noted Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine established the short-lived American Ballet Company in the 1930s; later he founded the company that in the 1940s would become the New York City Ballet. The American Ballet Theatre, also established during the 1940s, brought in non-American dancers as well. By the 1970s this company had attracted Soviet defector Mikhail Baryshnikov, an internationally acclaimed dancer who served as the company’s artistic director during the 1980s. In classical music, influential Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, who composed symphonies using innovative musical styles, moved to the United States in 1939. German-born pianist, composer, and conductor Andre Previn, who started out as a jazz pianist in the 1940s, went on to conduct a number of distinguished American symphony orchestras. Another Soviet, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, became conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D. C. , in 1977. Some of the most innovative artists in the first half of the 20th century successfully incorporated new forms into classical traditions. Composers George Gershwin and Aaron Copland, and dancer Isadora Duncan were notable examples. Gershwin combined jazz and spiritual music with classical in popular works such as Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935). Copland developed a unique style that was influenced by jazz and American folk music. Early in the century, Duncan redefined dance along more expressive and free-form lines. Some artists in music and dance, such as composer John Cage and dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, were even more experimental. During the 1930s Cage worked with electronically produced sounds and sounds made with everyday objects such as pots and pans. He even invented a new kind of piano. During the late 1930s, avant-garde choreographer Cunningham began to collaborate with Cage on a number of projects. Perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most popular, American innovation was the Broadway musical, which also became a movie staple. Beginning in the 1920s, the Broadway musical combined music, dance, and dramatic performance in ways that surpassed the older vaudeville shows and musical revues but without being as complex as European grand opera. By the 1960s, this American musical tradition was well established and had produced extraordinary works by important musicians and lyricists such as George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Jerome Kern, and Oscar Hammerstein II. These productions required an immense effort to coordinate music, drama, and dance. Because of this, the musical became the incubator of an American modern dance tradition that produced some of America’s greatest choreographers, among them Jerome Robbins, Gene Kelly, and Bob Fosse. In the 1940s and 1950s the American musical tradition was so dynamic that it attracted outstanding classically trained musicians such as Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein composed the music for West Side Story, an updated version of Romeo and Juliet set in New York that became an instant classic in 1957. The following year, Bernstein became the first American-born conductor to lead a major American orchestra, the New York Philharmonic. He was an international sensation who traveled the world as an ambassador of the American style of conducting. He brought the art of classical music to the public, especially through his â€Å"Young People’s Concerts,† television shows that were seen around the world. Bernstein used the many facets of the musical tradition as a force for change in the music world and as a way of bringing attention to American innovation. In many ways, Bernstein embodied a transformation of American music that began in the 1960s. The changes that took place during the 1960s and 1970s resulted from a significant increase in funding for the arts and their increased availability to larger audiences. New York City, the American center for art performances, experienced an artistic explosion in the 1960s and 1970s. Experimental off-Broadway theaters opened, new ballet companies were established that often emphasized modern forms or blended modern with classical (Martha Graham was an especially important influence), and an experimental music scene developed that included composers such as Philip Glass and performance groups such as the Guarneri String Quartet. Dramatic innovation also continued to expand with the works of playwrights such as Edward Albee, Tony Kushner, and David Mamet. As the variety of performances expanded, so did the serious crossover between traditional and popular music forms. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, an expanded repertoire of traditional arts was being conveyed to new audiences. Popular music and jazz could be heard in formal settings such as Carnegie Hall, which had once been restricted to classical music, while the Brooklyn Academy of Music became a venue for experimental music, exotic and ethnic dance presentations, and traditional productions of grand opera. Innovative producer Joseph Papp had been staging Shakespeare in Central Park since the 1950s. Boston conductor Arthur Fiedler was playing a mixed repertoire of classical and popular favorites to large audiences, often outdoors, with the Boston Pops Orchestra. By the mid-1970s the United States had several world-class symphony orchestras, including those in Chicago; New York; Cleveland, Ohio; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even grand opera was affected. Once a specialized taste that often required extensive knowledge, opera in the United States increased in popularity as the roster of respected institutions grew to include companies in Seattle, Washington; Houston, Texas; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. American composers such as John Adams and Philip Glass began composing modern operas in a new minimalist style during the 1970s and 1980s. The crossover in tastes also influenced the Broadway musical, probably America’s most durable music form. Starting in the 1960s, rock music became an ingredient in musical productions such as Hair (1967). By the 1990s, it had become an even stronger presence in musicals such as Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk (1996), which used African American music and dance traditions, and Rent (1996) a modern, rock version of the classic opera La Boheme. This updating of the musical opened the theater to new ethnic audiences who had not previously attended Broadway shows, as well as to young audiences who had been raised on rock music. Performances of all kinds have become more available across the country. This is due to both the sheer increase in the number of performance groups as well as to advances in transportation. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the number of major American symphonies doubled, the number of resident theaters increased fourfold, and the number of dance companies increased tenfold. At the same time, planes made it easier for artists to travel. Artists and companies regularly tour, and they expand the audiences for individual artists such as performance artist Laurie Anderson and opera singer Jessye Norman, for musical groups such as the Juilliard Quartet, and for dance troupes such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Full-scale theater productions and musicals first presented on Broadway now reach cities across the country. The United States, once a provincial outpost with a limited European tradition in performance, has become a flourishing center for the performing arts.

Compare and contrast antigone&letter from a Birmingham jail essay Essay

It is very impressive how Antigone and the â€Å"Letter from a Birmingham Jail† essay are very similar despite being written in two different time periods. Antigone and Martin Luther King Junior both fought for what was good for their society. Antigone buried her brother despite the king stating that her brother was a traitor and that nobody should bury him or honor him in any way. Antigone believed that nobody could dishonor or override the gods, that includes the king. Antigone was punished. She was thrown into a cave and walled off to die slowly but she committed suicide instead. Antigone fought for what was morally right. Martin Luther king Jr. fought for civil rights in the south. At the time the south was segregated between whites and blacks,the whites often had the newest and best things. Dr. MLK believed that no matter your race, heritage or county of origin everyone should be treated equally and get to have the same opportunities to be successful. MLK got thrown in jail for parading, his anti-racism views. MLK successfully brought two different cultures of people together that had never been around each other before. neither group accepted each other with open arms but after a short backlash everyone learned to accept each other and live together as one. Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated on a hotel balcony after standing up for what was right and what was needed to be done at the time. Antigone stood up to the king so she could respect the gods and MLK stood up for blacks civil rights. what makes them comparable is that they both changed society positively whether it be the culture or the spiritual side of things. There is a clear difference in how each protagonist died, but then Antigone and MLK go back to being very similar in the reason why they died. The man that shot Dr. Martin Luther King thought that he deserved to be punished, so that man in his mind did what he thought was the correct thing to do. In Antigone the king demonstrated the action that he thought was appropriate for Antigone disobeying his command. Both MLK and Antigone understood the risks but they still choose to stand up for what they believed what was right. MLK and Antigone are heroes who sacrificed themselves for the better of the world, both showed bravery when no one else would. Martin Luther King Jr. did what he did so future generations could be in peace with each other. Antigone did what she did to prove to the king that no mere mortal has the right to deny any person their rights to honor and pay their respects to the dead.

Gingivitis essays

Gingivitis essays In a recent study, it was discovered that over seventy-five percent of Americans age thirty-five and older have some form of gum disease. The first stage of gum disease is gingivitis, which is a disorder involving inflammation of the gums. Gingivitis is caused by plaque, a film of bacteria that coats the teeth. When plaque hardens, or calcifies, it turns into a tartar, or calculus. Plaque and tartar build up and create pockets of bacteria between the teeth and gums. It may result in gums becoming inflamed or swollen. This can also cause bleeding of the gums. If left untreated, gingivitis can progress to periodontitis, which is the second stage of gum disease and more serious. Periodontal disease causes destruction of bone and structures supporting the teeth (www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/wisdomtooth/stagesof.htm). Naturally, poor oral hygiene is a very common risk factor for being diagnosed with gingivitis. However, other factors may contribute to this gum disease. Heredity is a common factor leading to gingivitis. Bacteria may be more harmful to some peoples gums than others. Various medications cause dry mouth and reduce the cleansing ability of saliva. This causes plaque and tartar to build up more easily. Another cause leading to gum disease is the use of tobacco. It slows the healing process of gums causing bacteria to destroy tissue. Also, people with diabetes are at a greater risk of developing a gum disease. Diabetes could possibly cause thickening of blood vessels, which makes it more difficult to carry nutrients to the gum tissue. In addition, pregnant women become more prone to detrimental effects of plaque and bacteria because of hormonal changes during pregnancy (www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/DS/00363.html). People affected by periodontal disease are also at a greater risk of serious medical conditions. Studies reveal there is a link between bacteria in the mouth and c ...

Managing Mixed Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Managing Mixed Economy - Essay Example On its 250th anniversary in 1990 the name again changed to what is now known as the royal London hospital. The first patients were treated in a house in Featherstone Street, Moorfields in November 1740 before later moving to a rented premises in Prescott street the following may. In 1757 it moved to its current location on the south side of white chapel road, in the London borough of tower hamlets (NHS 2013). In 1785, the hospital surgeons began training students by taking them into the hospital and discussing patients aliments,at times students were allowed to administer medication and treatment to patients. This was the basis for the formation of the first hospital based medical school in England.it was founded by William blizzard and James Maddocks. In 1948 the hospital became part of National Health Service as the voluntary hospital system ended. The system which had cared for the sick in the 18th century came to an end as the state took control of the health care system under th e national health act (Banks 2013). The London lost some of its independence but was financially better off than before. Further reorganization in the early 90s allowed the hospital to regain some self-government. The royal London was granted its title by HM the queen on its 250thanniversary and later became part of the NHS trust (Barts Health 2013). The royal London later merged with St Bartholomew’s and London chest hospitals as pioneers to form the new trust, Barts NHS trust. The London is already home to one of Europe’s largest accident and emergency departments, also home to Britain’s biggest children’s hospital services (Banks 2013). The London was the first to offer helicopter emergency medical service while carrying a doctor on board. In 1998 queen Elizabeth the hospital for children joined the trust and transferred its services to the royal London but retained their historical identity; their name that had been granted by her majesty queen Elizab eth (Gavin 2013). Recently in march 2012 a first phase in the construction of the new state of the art royal London hospital began. This was to replace the demolished old buildings so as to support the delivery of 21st century modernized medical care. Facilities Facilities at the royal London include; overnight accommodation, multi-faith chaplaincy Centre, telephones, shops, cash points, restaurants and the royal London archives. Overnight accommodation The hospital offers overnight accommodations to the relatives of patients admitted at the hospital. Also provides facilities for patients prior to their appointments who have to travel a long way to receive treatment at the hospital but who need not to be readmitted to a ward (Barts Health 2013). JamesHora homes are a facility at the royal London hospital that offers accommodation for outpatients who experience difficulties in travelling to and from hospital for daily treatment and to the relatives of patient in need of critical care . The home has a capacity to accommodate up to 26 guests a night. Stevenson’s house another facility of the royal London for accommodation located on Ash Field Street provides families of children admitted at the London with accommodation during long stays (Gavin 2013). It is fully equipped with bathrooms, a kitchen, a

Financial Analysis of a Publicly-Traded Company Research Paper

Financial Analysis of a Publicly-Traded Company - Research Paper Example However, after conversion of preferred stock held by the US government into a common stock, US government is the largest stakeholder of the company to the tune of over $25 billion (Stempel, 2009). Q.2 Identify the five (5) forces of competition and how it impacts the company. Porter's five forces of competition describe Citigroup’s relative standing in the financial market and the impact these forces may crate on the company can be elaborated under the following heads (Porter, 2008). Threat of Entry from Other organizations Banking business requires huge resources and credibility to begin with and that will surely create an entry barrier for a new entrant. The economies of scale go in favor of the Citi as that helps Citi to provide the services to the consumers at affordable cost. There is always a moderate threat from overseas players to enter in the niche area of Citi. Supplier Power Citi is in the business of financial services. Deposit holders provide huge chunk of capital to the Citi. In most of the cases, they do not have any bargaining power as they are in millions scattered all around and individually too small to dictate any terms. Currently, money flows globally and forward and backward integration of the companies in financial service business can create some turbulent times to the Citigroup but that applies to all firms within the financial market. Buyer Power Being in the financial services business, retail buyers do not have any bargaining power as such and they need to buy as per the market offerings. It is true that business moves in favor of the market-driven company but buyers bargaining power in the financial sector is not substantial to tilt the scale against the companies in this sector. Institutional buyers are the informed buyers and they do possess bargaining power to a certain extent because they buy in bulk; however, that bargaining power is not always one-sided. Financial products are inherently complex in nature and buyers hav e limited capacity to understand them though they do get substitutes in the market. This factor is not likely to affect much to the company like Citigroup. Rivalry Factor There are numerous competitors in the financial services business in retail and the institutional sectors; however, brand equity is superb in case of Citi. Mergers and acquisition is a common phenomenon in the financial sector. Size of the corporation does matter and Citigroup is one of the giant in the financial sector business so that is always a plus point for the company. Usually, companies change the hands but do no prefer to exit completely as sector offers lucrative business opportunities in the long run. Product differentiation is always possible to carve a suitable niche for the company and Citi has been doing the same for several decades. Substitution Threats Due to numerous players in the financial service sector business, substitute products are always available and the consumers weigh them with all pro s and cons. Citi also faces the issue of