As the curator of education for the Palmer Museum of Art, Dana Kletchka is hoping to "demystify" contemporary art.

The museum and the School of Visual Arts John M. Anderson Endowed Lecture Series are co-sponsoring screenings of all four episodes from the Art:21-Art in the Twenty-First Century television series, now in its fifth season.

"The great thing about this is it introduces some pretty complex ideas in a way that is interesting and that stimulates discussion," Kletchka said.

The second episode, "Fantasy," will be screened tonight at the Palmer Lipcon Auditorium and will feature four contemporary artists and their artwork. Three other episodes will be screened on the next three Thursdays.

Penn State art education Professor Mary Ann Stankiewicz, who is on the National Education Advisory Council for Art21, said the show introduces viewers to the artists' backgrounds and allows them to see the quality of their work and how they get their ideas.

"The producers do a fantastic job of researching artists and learning about them and getting to know how they work," Stankiewicz said.

Tonight's episode features artists Cao Fei, Mary Heilmann, Jeff Koons and Florian Maier-Aichen, artists who Kletcha said use different ideas in their works. Cao Fei is basing her medium off of "Second Life," an online 3-D virtual world.

"She's not even using something that you can touch -- she's using a virtual space," Kletchka said.

Jeff Koons is known for his large pop art references, famous for his art on Michael Jackson and Bubbles, Jackson's former chimpanzee companion.

Stankiewicz said that one of the unique things about the Art:21 series is its diversity: Its featured artists are active in the United States and around the world, from South Africa to Columbia.

Eve-Laure Moros Ortega, series producer and Art21 managing director, said this season is more international, filming on every continent except Antarctica. She thinks the television series is unique in its dedication to contemporary art -- it's the only program broadcast nationally that is exclusively devoted to the subject.

Kletchka said different faculty members were asked to host a question-and-answer session after each screening. Wesley Miller, associate curator for the series, will be speaking at Palmer after the screening of the fourth episode on Oct. 29.

"It extends the offerings of the Anderson Speaker Series, which provides a fantastic array of guest speakers for the School of Visual Arts," Stankiewicz said.