A NEW year brings a new look for Culture - and some new regular features which we hope you will enjoy.
In the belief that you can tell a lot about a person by viewing their music collection, we introduce My iPod on Page 17.
American singer-songwriter Laura Veirs, who is in the region in February, gets things underway by kindly sharing some of the songs which travel with her wherever she goes.
Similarly, everyone has their heroes, the figures they strive to emulate on their own passage through life.
In our new My Hero column on page 20, the choreographer Antonia Grove enthuses about Merce Cunningham, the American dancer and choreographer.
Meanwhile in Readers’ Lives on page 42, Kirsten Luckins runs through some of her favourite books.
It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words and we embrace that idea with our new Picture of the Month, which you can see on pages 6 and 7.
It is a celebration of the many talented photographers working across the region who regularly upload photos onto The Journal’s online Flickr site.
We will choose one photograph every month for the big magazine treatment. Allan England and his stunning Blyth landscape get things underway.
Finally, since the relationship between Culture and The Journal isn’t always widely appreciated, we introduce Culture Daily (pages 12 and 13) which gives a sample of the stories and reviews we have published recently in the newspaper and some forthcoming highlights.
We are also - as you will see - inviting you to share your views on matters cultural.
For the record, Culture is published with The Journal, the morning newspaper for the North East, on the last Tuesday of every month. Thereafter it is available in various cultural venues across the region.
Finally, we welcome back Charles Evans, the Northumberland watercolorist whose step-by-step demonstrations were a popular feature in the early Culture issues.
This time he returns to our excellent Taste section - starting on page 47 - sharing not only his talents with paints and brushes but his views on pub fare.
Charles was a whiz in the catering business before transferring his versatile skills to the visual arts.
A belated Happy New Year as Culture enters a new chapter.
David Whetstone