TASTE MAKERS: : WHAT MOVES THE CULTURAL MOVERS?

The culture of this society, as of any society, is too dynamic to be called a mosaic. Mosaics stand still. Culture is a kaleidoscope that changes continuously, and changes here faster than anywhere else on the globe.

Every season discloses new hands that keep the kaleidoscope turning, rearranging the visions of art, fashion, performance, composition and commentary, all the things that engage us, divert us, define us, renew us and expand our notions of the way things can be.

A publication that tries to keep its collective eye on the culture’s movers and shapers has relatively little trouble identifying who they are--the grand masters who in their maturity are more influential and persuasive than ever, the new tigers who are overnight discoveries (although they’ve taken longer than overnight to earn their eminences).

What is trickier is the question, Who shapes the shapers, what moves the movers? What helps the taste makers to know their own tastes? What writers stir the editors, what other musicians turn on the composers and the players? What energies, possibly arising outside their art, challenge the way the creators do their stuff?

For the second year, Calendar’s editors have identified a fairly vivid cross section of cultural shapers and taste makers, from a rocker to a newscaster, and set before each of them some basic questions about the making of their own tastes, preferences and drives.

The findings are a kaleidoscope within the kaleidoscope. They are revealing and suggestive rather than conclusive, but they help to characterize pieces of turf in the state of the arts.