NAJP has been good to us. I'd like to join those who are able to not only give back but recreate & recharge the organization. Arts journalism survives despite slippery, slipping standards and challenges that exceed the word limit here. Please include my enthusiasm, years and (hopefully) persuasive motor mouth to the troops'. Some concerns as we search for funds, a locale and refinement of mission:

I believe that as critics, we have too often let slip the opportunity to engage in dialog with artists in America, taking the tack that they may compromise our objectivity (when of course there is no such thing as objectivity but that is another discourse.) So I'd like to make sure that every conservatory and art school is included in the search for sourcing for the new NAJP as well a prestigious university to house or support us. And why not include high-schools for the performing arts in our resource base?

Another concern: that we help youth entering the field and/or simply young artists, (musicians, playwrights, dancers) know where the art of criticism is smartly taught something I never had a good course in at the Peabody Conservatory.(To my knowledge it is still not covered at the Curtis Institute here in Philadelphia.) How splendid to see the new NAJP become The Resource for all things big and small artistic, critical, worldwide.

Credentials: Daughter of Latin Bandleader, piano and dancing lessons since childhood. piano degree, Peabody Conservatory; graduate fellowship to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, musicology; fulltime journalist, 23 years. Since September, 2002, the arts & culture critic forTemple University's WRTI, 90.1 fm, classical and jazz radio in Philadelphia. My reviews (music, dance, theater, Philadelphia historic sites) can be heard at www.wrti.org..From 1987-99, classical music critic and dance reviewer for The Philadelphia Inquirer, from 1999-2002, chief classical music critic, San Jose Mercury News; also music critic for Women's Wear Daily & W, NYC, 19984-87. Freelance for the usual suspects: The Wall St. Journal, The New York Times, Baltimore Sun, LA Times, Vogue, Musical America, Creator and music advisor for the video documentary on harpsichordist Wanda Landowska (VAI).