Two New Voices on the Arts

The role of culture critic has never been more vital, now that we can watch, read or listen to just about anything at any time, anywhere. So it is with special pleasure that I introduce two new TIME critics. Covering movies, Stephanie Zacharek comes to us from the Village Voice, where she was a finalist for this year’s Pulitzer Prize for criticism. Stephanie brings to these pages and to TIME.com a sharp critical sensibility combined with a warm and helpful voice. “What I love most about movies, and about writing criticism,” she says, “is the excitement of facing something new each week. Even in a terrible movie, you might see an actor doing something spectacular. The challenge, and the joy, of writing about movies is to be alive to what’s in front of you at all times.”

Leading our coverage of television will be Daniel D’Addario, who joined our staff last year and has been writing features on subjects ranging from Atticus Finch’s newfound bigotry in Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman to the “perfect marriage” between Jon Stewart and HBO. “Television is the most exciting field to cover right now because it’s changing so rapidly,” Dan observes. “In the past few years alone, services like Netflix and Amazon have become awards magnets, while broadcast TV has become vastly more representative of America’s diversity. What writer wouldn’t want to follow an art form and an industry this unpredictable?”

This week also marks the launch of Time’s new online shop (shop.time.com), designed to make both your decorating and gift giving easier this holiday season. We have created high-quality prints of 12 of the most beloved photos from the Life picture collection, including Alfred Eisenstaedt’s V-J Day in Times Square and Dmitri Kessel’s Eiffel Tower, 1948.

Nancy Gibbs, EDITOR