AETN Arts Fridays: A Celebration of Artistic Innovators

It’s an evening celebrating artistic innovation this AETN Arts Friday! From the inventive “folkgrass” style of Ozark band Still on the Hill at 6:30 p.m. to the life story of the quirky, quarrelsome and avante guard art collector Dr. Albert C. Barnes, tonight’s programming promises to give your brain and senses a good stretch before you kick off your weekend.

Still on the Hill, the featured artists on this week’s “AETN Presents,” serenades viewers with a unique, foot-tapping sound with new arrangements of traditional favorites and original songs from their newest CD, “Ozark: A Celebration in Song.” The award-winning duo, Kelly Mullhollan and Donna Stjerna, creates pieces inspired by their travels in the belief that the stories of the Ozarks’ unsung heroes best reflect what makes the hills distinctive.

At 9 p.m., “The Barnes Collection” from PBS Arts, gives you an exclusive look inside the life of one of American art history’s most colorful characters, Dr. Albert Cooms Barnes. After growing up in a working-class Philadelphia neighborhood, Albert Barnes rose to be a phenomenal businessman and, after selling his company and retiring in his late 30s, went on to be one of the world’s foremost collectors of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works. “The Barnes Collection” tells his unique tale and bounces back and forth through time as the late Dr. Barnes travels the world to collect works of art by some of history’s most famous artists – Picasso, Cezanne, Matisse, Renoir and others. In addition to examining Dr. Barnes himself, the film explores the intricacies of each of his paintings, offering a rare look at the priceless collection and the new Philadelphia museum that houses it.

TUNE IN:

AETN Arts Fridays

August 3, 2012

“AETN Presents: On the Front Row With Still on the Hill,” 6:30 p.m.

“The Barnes Collection,” 9 p.m.