Sherry Chandler

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has a new blog, Eye Level, which has as its mission:

Using the museum’s collection as a touchstone, the conversation at Eye Level will be dedicated to American art and the ways in which the nation’s art reflects its history and culture. The discussion will extend beyond the walls of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection to include other collections, exhibitions, and events. Eye Level will also document the extraordinary collaboration between curators, conservators, handlers, historians, enthusiasts, critics, exhibition and new media designers, and of course bloggers that has motivated the past and present of American art history

One fascinating topic already — Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty in the Great Salt Lake. Who knew there was such a thing? Not many apparently. The blog essay tells us that the jetty was built in 1970 but has been under water for many years. It re-emerged in 2002. It seems to have this dynamic relationship to the Lake, sometimes visible, sometimes not. Always interacting with the landscape.

And speaking of the Smithsonian, Wendell Berry has been recognized by the Smithsonian Magazine as one of 35 Who Made a Difference:

Wendell Berry, farmer and poet, has lived in sight of the Kentucky River for 40 years, in a landscape where generations of his family have farmed since the early 1800s. The river is probably the only mainstream close to his heart. As a farmer, he has shunned the use of tractors and plowed his land with a team of horses. As a poet, he has stood apart from the categories and controversies of the literary world, writing in language neither modern nor postmodern, making poems that have the straightforward elegance of the Amish furniture in his farmhouse. And in recent decades, he has produced a body of political thought, in a series of essays and speeches, that is so Jeffersonian it seems almost un-American in today’s world

Read the entire profile.

HarperCollins Will Create a Searchable Digital Library

In the latest move in the battle between publishers and search engines, HarperCollins Publishers said yesterday it would create its own digital library of all of its book and audio content and make it searchable by consumers on the Internet. Web users will be able to search the HarperCollins archive via search engines like Google and Yahoo or the specialized programs of retailers like Amazon.com.