Bill Ivey, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, tells Steve Paulson that Americans make aesthetic decisions all the time and that learning to decode and interpret information using the vocabulary of the arts will become increasingly important in the next century. Also, California artist Landa Townsend makes multi-media installations that incorporate art and science, sound and sight, the electronic and human memory. She describes some of her pieces to Judith Strasser, and we hear some of the aural environments she's created for them.

Sculptor Claes Oldenburg, best known for his monumental sculptures of everyday objects, talks with Judith Strasser. He explains that his long-standing interest in making prints or "multiples" grows out of the 60's idea of democratizing art. Also, sculptor Ursula von Rydingsvard talks with Steve Paulson about her monumental works (like a fifteen foot shovel); relates her fascination with spoons to her childhood in a refugee camp; and describes a bowl she hopes to build in England.