Can The Arts Find A Place On TV?

“PBS has always held exclusive claim to being ‘the arts channel,’ of course, mainly because networks shrink from fine-arts programming as ratings poison. But even so, the marriage between public broadcasting and the arts has, at times, seemed a superficial one.” An experiment at Maryland Public Television illustrates the problems, starting a debate “ranging from how producers can compellingly cover the arts, to whether anyone will watch it, and ultimately, if art and television can get along at all.”