It was announced earlier this week that Phoenix contributing writer Greg Cook's art blog, the New England Journal of Aesthetic Research, has been awarded a $30,000 endowment from the Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program, which rewards "commitment to the craft of writing and the advancement of critical discourse on contemporary visual art."One of just three blogs to receive the grant, Cook's site is especially deserving: it's a dense, sprawling, and compulsively updated clearing-house for arty goings-on across the Northeast — combining criticism and analysis of local museum and gallery shows, interviews with artists both famous and up-and-coming, and original reporting about the region's art scene. (It was Cook who first reported this past January, for instance, that Brandeis University's Rose Art Museum was planning to close.)
"If you look really closely and relentlessly and intensely at this region, you'll find amazing things going on," says Cook — also an artist and photographer in his own right — who sees his blog writing "almost fertilizing or composting" an already fruitful but sometimes underappreciated local scene, and "hopefully [making] a more exciting community for all of us."
Cook isn't sure at the moment just how he'll put his prize money to use. In a blog post Monday, he noted that "this windfall will allow the team at the New England Journal of Aesthetic Research to heat our headquarters and eat this winter."
He wasn't entirely joking. "The life of a freelancer in this economy is an exciting one," he says with a wry laugh. "So this is an encouragement to keep at it."
Down the road, some computer upgrades and new projects may be in the offing, but in the meantime, Cook says, "We're mostly gonna spend it on some booze and chocolate."
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Alternative universe, 2009: The year in art, Fresh fruit and vegetables, More 
- Alternative universe
In the 1930s and '40s, Boston painters developed a moody, mythic realism. They mixed social satire with depictions of street scenes, Biblical scenes, and mystical symbolic narratives, all of it darkened by the shadow of the Great Depression and World War II.
- 2009: The year in art
The year started off with a kick in the teeth when, in January, Brandeis University announced plans to shutter its Rose Art Museum and sell off its masterpieces.
- Fresh fruit and vegetables
The bleakest months of New England winter are ahead of us, so the prospect of leaving your toasty house to see art may not be at the top of your to-do list.
- 2009: Worth another look
The lousy economy hit home this year as Stairwell Gallery in Providence and Yes Gallery in Warren closed their doors.
- Reboot
Portland artist Randy Regier's work is just beginning to be known, but he may be one of the best sculptors in the country.
- Modern times
Does Jen Mergel's appointment mean that the MFA is getting serious about contemporary art?
- Works in progress
Back in October, Minnesota photographer Alec Soth spoke at MassArt. "Facebook: 15 billion uploaded photos," he said. "At its busiest, 550,000 images each second being uploaded. So I've been struggling with that. How do I function as a photographer in that environment?"
- Beautiful garbage
"Trash" at AS220's Project Space (93 Mathewson Street, Providence, through January 29) focuses on our love-hate relationship with garbage
- Two sides of life
"I started as a commercial artist, and I want to finish as a business artist," the Pop artist Andy Warhol wrote in 1975. "Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art."
- Looking DuBack
Looking backward, history seems a whole lot more orderly than it does while you're living it.
- A special Maine feel
This may be remembered as the year that the Center for Maine Contemporary Art smashed headlong into a fiscal brick wall, and at this writing it is not clear if, after its current show closes this week, it will open again in the spring.
- Less
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