Articulate with Jim Cotter

Articulate connects audiences to the human stories behind art, offering a trustworthy, visually stimulating, never ordinary take on classical, contemporary, and popular art forms. From acclaimed musicians and best-selling authors to designers changing the way we live, each episode explores what great creative thinkers and doers can tell us about who we are, who we’ve been, and who we might become.

A production of Articulate Studios for The Articulate Foundation, Articulate is co-produced and presented by PBS39, Lehigh Valley’s PBS station, and distributed by American Public Television (APT).

Our Story

In 2015, with the support of Articulate founding sponsor The Neubauer Family Foundation, a production team led by veteran radio journalist and broadcaster Jim Cotter began work on a new public television program. The team envisioned—and realized, first in Philadelphia, then nationwide—a program that would serve as a one-of-a-kind window into the ideas and experiences of diverse artists, from authors and architects to musicians and dancers.

Articulate’s home base is a high-tech warren of fourth-story rooms in a 19th-century townhouse built by the financier and industrialist Edward T. Stotesbury on Philadelphia’s iconic Rittenhouse Square; the television studio occupies a refurbished squash court added to the building in the early 20th-century. In 2018, production expanded into the Stotesbury ballroom, a gilded, high-ceilinged room that plays singular host to Articulate’s full-episode concert shows. Our Andrew Bird concert show, Whistling While He Works, received two 2020 Daytime Emmy® Award nominations and the award for Outstanding Sound Mixing. In 2021 and 2022, Articulate was nominated for the Daytime Emmy® Award for Outstanding Arts and Popular Culture Program.

Meet Jim Cotter

Jim Cotter is a broadcast journalist and producer of film, TV, and radio. He has reported from five continents, interviewing world leaders, great artists, and everyday people. Cotter began his career working for local radio in Ireland before moving to the UK to work for BBC Wales and The BBC World Service. After coming to the US, Cotter served as Arts Editor at WRTI radio from 2001-15, where he started and hosted the popular, long-running weekly culture show, Creatively Speaking. He created Articulate in 2014.

Articulate Studios

John Avarese
Audio Supervisor
Tom Contarino
Senior Producer
Giselle McBrien
Studio Facilities Coordinator
Mark Miller
Senior Editor
Mary Morilla
Associate Producer
Alanna Nikol
Editor & Motion Designer
Eva Roben
Executive Producer
Christine Walden
Producer

The Articulate Foundation

The Articulate Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit charity. Through Articulate and its associated educational vehicles, we connect broadcast, digital, and classroom audiences to the human stories behind art. We envision a world where artists are valued and respected for their ideas, modes of thinking, and productivity, and where the contributions of creative minds are core to thinking in the classroom, in the boardroom, in government, and beyond.

Anne O'Callaghan
Executive Director

Our Supporters