Michael Kimmelman and Betsy Stirratt

Conversations Online talks with Michael Kimmelman, the chief art critic at The New York Times. Mr. Kimmelman visited the Indiana University campus in Bloomington earlier this month to deliver the inaugural Dorit and Gerald Paul lectures in Jewish culture and arts for the Borns Jewish Studies Program.

Mr. Kimmelman joined The New York Times staff as an art critic in 1989 and was named chief art critic in 1990. His book Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere was selected as a notable book of the year by The Washington Post and The New York Times and as best book of the year by Publisher's Weekly. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism last year.

One of Mr. Kimmelman's lectures at IU was titled "The Art of Remembrance: History , Monuments and Memory." Betsy Stirratt, the director of the School of Fine Arts Gallery at Indiana University, explores the topic further in this interview.

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• Significant Monuments and Memorials
• Successful Monuments and Memorials stimulate Discussion
• Public Understanding of Monuments and Memorials
• Minimalism is the Prevalent Language of Memorials
• Cultural Significance of 9/11 Memorial in Union Square
• Will socially important, great Art be Created?
• Responsibilities of Contemporary Artists to the Culture

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