Art and Stuff

Fun new weekly podcast from the Art Fund each episode focusing on specific objects from different museums and galleries purchased with the help of the fund.

Introduced by Ben Miller, the series so far, and at the time of writing we are on episode 6, have covered an eclectic collection of items from collaged screen by Joe Orton’s partner Kenneth Halliwell, through an 18th century organ, taking in the picture of the Spanish Armada shown here and a portrait of Charles Dickens.

Each episode brings together a variety of experts and artists to comment on the piece and discuss themes that arise from it. For example an episode on the Great Bed of Ware looks a the history of sleep, travel and marketing as well as describing the object and it’s place in cultural history.

My only criticism of this well produced series would be that it would be nice to have a webpage of images for each one so you can see the object in more detail and some of the other pieces mentioned particularly any contemporary art that it has inspired. However it’s certainly another things to add to my list of regular listening.

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