Today you hold in your hands the first issue of A&E, The Minnesota Daily’s weekly arts and entertainment section, published for the first time in almost three years. When A&E was cut on Oct. 25, 2000, the University community lost an important point of access for learning and discussion of the culture around it. Although arts coverage continued during that period, its effectiveness was hampered by dramatically reduced staffing and funding, as well as lasting bitterness over A&E’s demise.

Our return represents a vindication – not only for the 12 staffers who lost their jobs three years ago, but also for those of us who have worked at the Daily since then with the hope that A&E would return. However, it is important for all of us to look forward to the future. We have an amazing opportunity to both build on A&E’s rich history and learn from its mistakes in an atmosphere that is not beholden to any sentimentality or nostalgia.

Thanks are due to the rest of the Daily staff, from both this year and last year, who dedicated their time, energy and support to making this renewal possible.

As those of our readers who remember the old A&E will note, this section is anything but a copy of the previous one. We are starting small this time, though we hope to increase our size when it is feasible. Also, the design of the new A&E is much closer to the rest of the Daily. We want to be known as a part – an essential part – of the Daily, with its rich tradition of excellence that is renewed every year by a new group of student journalists.

A&E aims to train our staff to be the best arts journalists they can be. Simultaneously, we want to cover the University, local and national arts and entertainment stories that will best interest and inform our readers. We look forward to inaugurating a new tradition at the Daily, and we hope that you, our readers, will assist and support us in this endeavor.