Arts & the Technology of the Future: Artist and composer Zoe Keating gave an interview shortly after attending The Blockchain Summit, a gathering of leading minds to discuss digital currency and the future, held at Richard Branson’s Necker Island. A well-known proponent of professional transparency, Keating comments on the advantages and challenges of being an unaffiliated artist and ways to enable what she calls “the musical middle class” in the ever-changing digital landscape.

Close-up: A Female Arts Entrepreneur: Latest to be featured in the Huffington Post’s “Women in the Performing Arts” series is Karen Kohlhass, founding member of The Atlantic Theater Company and author of numerous books on monologues and auditions. Kohlhaas discusses her what makes her acting classes unique and what first inspired her to be a teacher. The “Monologue Queen” reflects on feedback from her students and her current documentary project about Tennessee Williams and the Mississippi Delta.

Arts for Community & Economic Development: At the 2015 Rural Arts and Culture Summit, held at the University of Minnesota- Morris, attendees discuss the connections between the arts, economic development, and current narratives about rural America. Drawing 360 people from 17 states, the RAC Summit provides a gathering place to discuss the use of art in preserving and honoring the culture of the oft-forgotten segments of America. Appropriately located in Minnesota (the top state for per capita investment in the arts), the 2015 RAC Summit covered discussions of the role of arts programs in rural community population retention.

Visualizing Loss: Written, directed, and narrated by Neil Halloran, the new fifteen-minute documentary, The Fallen of World War II, examines both military and civilian deaths, ultimately juxtaposing WWII with other world conflicts. Halloran’s mesmerizing visuals give meaning to the incomprehensible statistics and unspeakable devastation of the war. An interactive feature of the documentary allows viewers to engage even further with the statistics and graphics. Halloran concludes on an uplifting note by focusing on the “Long Peace” since the end of WWII, though he admits: “Peace is a difficult thing to measure.”