National Gallery of Art | Audio

Howardena Pindell discusses how social issues and the prospect of societal change impact her art and life. In her artistic practice, Pindell's work reflects a fascination with gridded, serialized imagery and surface texture. She often employs lengthy, metaphorical processes of destruction/reconstruction. Even in her more politically charged work, Pindell reverts to these thematic focuses to address issues of homelessness, AIDS, war, genocide, sexism, xenophobia, and apartheid. Watch the lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zcw9iriBvU Learn more about Howardena Pindell's work in the Gallery's collection: https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.10097.html Pindell's work “Free, White and 21" is featured in “The Double,” on view July 10–October 31, 2022: https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2022/the-double-identity-and-difference-in-art-since-1900.html The Elson Lecture Series features distinguished contemporary artists who are represented in the Gallery's permanent collection. The Honorable and Mrs. Edward E. Elson generously endowed this series in 1992. Find out more about the Elson Lecture Series on our website: https://www.nga.gov/audio-video/elson.html Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels?    National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS   National Gallery of Art Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks 

Guitarist Sonia De Los Santos hails from Mexico, where as a child she was exposed to different musical influences. In Auguste Renoir's “Young Spanish Woman with a Guitar,” De Los Santos sees echoes of her younger self. Her song “Sueña” is an ode to dreams. Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks

Maria Schneider composed “Bulería, Soleá y Rumba” in the wake of a cancer diagnosis. Inspired by American artists such as Robert Henri and George Bellows, Schneider discusses “art for life's sake” that tells a story of people—like the evocative figures in Bellows's The Lone Tenement. Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks

Clint Smith, Renée Stout, and Hank Willis Thomas present on the role of history and memory in shaping American culture and identity. This is the third talk of the three-part series "John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art: Afro-Atlantic Histories," which gathers literary and visual artists to reflect on how art responds to and shapes both official and overlooked narratives wrought by the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies. Watch the entire video by Hank Willis Thomas titled “A Person is More Important Than Anything Else…,” commissioned by NY Live Arts for the Year of James Baldwin: https://hankwillisthomas.com/WORKS/Video/2 Watch the lecture: https://youtu.be/oM6_4MmmzJU

Erica Buddington, Nona Faustine, and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers present archival research–based practices that create and uplift missing narratives. This is the second talk of the three-part series "John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art: Afro-Atlantic Histories," which gathers literary and visual artists to reflect on how art responds to and shapes both official and overlooked narratives wrought by the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies. Watch the video: https://youtu.be/36aA_Mg7IZA

This work reminds jazz trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis of the proud, hard-working generations that raised him. A history of struggle may suggest the minor key, but Marsalis ultimately chose upbeat music to celebrate those who fought and made it work. Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks

Violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved and National Gallery director Kaywin Feldman discuss Hieronymus Bosch's “Death and the Miser” and its symbolism of contrast: light and dark, life and death. Skærved plays a 17th-century violin sonatina that echoes similar contrasts of sensuality and fatality, beauty and mortality. Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks

Artists Rosana Paulino and Cameron Rowland explore the lasting legacy of slavery in their works of art. This is the first talk of the three-part series "John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art: Afro-Atlantic Histories," which gathers literary and visual artists to reflect on how art responds to and shapes both official and overlooked narratives wrought by the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies. Watch the lecture: https://youtu.be/5n90V4Acg_w

Rapper Sa-Roc's music speaks to different aspects of Black experience, including the vulnerability of many Black kids—similar to the boy in Margaret Burroughs's linocut, who hides himself. Her song “Forever” invites listeners not to hide, but to shine and share their “inner light” with the world. Find full transcript and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/sa-roc-margaret-burroughs-sleeping-boy.html Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks

Musician Daniel Ho spent much of his childhood on the water, so he relates to Thomas Cole's river paintings. Ho responds to Voyage of Life with an original suite. Starting with simple harmonies to represent childhood, he gradually introduces complexity. Find full transcript and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/daniel-ho-thomas-cole-voyage-life-series.html Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks

In “Sand Dipper,” jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman creates an abstract and overwhelming world. This music, Scheinman says, sounds how El Greco's painting looks. And it feels like the question on Laocoön's face as he looks up for the last time. Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks

Orphée depicts many tragedies, but songwriter Dom Flemons finds the joy in it: it resolves in the beautiful scene of two lovers embracing. Flemons pairs it with the tranquil "Blue Butterfly." The instrumental song helps the emotional weight sink in. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/dom-flemons-marc-chagall-orphee.html. Image credit: Marc Chagall, Orphée, 1969, stone and glass mosaic, National Gallery of Art, Washington, The John U. and Evelyn S. Nef Collection, 2011.60.104.1–10 Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels?National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUSNational Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ABOUT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ARTThe National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity.More National Gallery of Art Content:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationalgalleryofart Twitter: https://twitter.com/ngadcInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ngadc/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ngadc/_created/ E-News: https://nga.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=e894a1837aca4526f7e8a11b3&id=2085ff9475

The final session of American University's Feminist Art History Conference, cohosted by the National Gallery, brings together distinguished curators to discuss contemporary issues in museum practice. Lauren Haynes, Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University; Catherine Morris, Sackler Senior Curator for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum; Asma Naeem, chief curator of the Baltimore Museum of Art; Christine Sciacca, associate curator, European art 300–1400 CE, Walters Art Museum; and Christina Yu Yu, Matsutaro Shoriki Chair, Art of Asia, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Moderated by Mikka Gee Conway, chief, diversity, inclusion, and belonging officer and EEO director, National Gallery of Art. Held in collaboration with the National Gallery's John Wilmerding Symposium on America Art and the traveling exhibition Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful. In 1952, at age sixty-one, Thomas enrolled in graduate-level art history and painting coursework at American University to pursue “creative painting.” American University offers the Alma Thomas Award to an outstanding student studying painting. For the Feminist Art History Conference, Melanee Harvey will chair a session titled ACTIVISM: MAKING SPACE and Jonathan Frederick Walz will present a lecture titled "Alma W. Thomas's Moving Pictures." Celebrate Alma W. Thomas's Legacy: https://www.nga.gov/learn/adults/john-wilmerding-symposium-community-celebration-alma-thomas.html Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks

Presentations on Thomas's aesthetic and social environment by Melanee Harvey, Margie Jervis, Marya McQuirter, and Thaïsa Way, followed with discussion moderated by Charles Brock. Melanee Harvey, assistant professor and coordinator of art history, Howard University, Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful catalog contributor, and American University Feminist Art History Conference session chair; Margie Jervis, artist and scenic designer, Creative Cauldron of Falls Church; Marya McQuirter, independent researcher, writer, curator, and scholar, faculty member, department of history and director of the Public History Collaborative (PHC) at the University of Arizona, with a joint appointment at the University Libraries, curator of the dc1968 project, author of the African American Heritage Trail Guide, Washington, DC; and Thaïsa Way, program director of garden and landscape studies, Dumbarton Oaks. Moderated by Charles Brock, associate curator of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art. Celebrate Alma W. Thomas's Legacy: https://www.nga.gov/learn/adults/john-wilmerding-symposium-community-celebration-alma-thomas.html Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks

Presentations on Thomas's studio art training and involvement with galleries, museums, and universities by Renee Maurer, Nell Irvin Painter, and Rebecca VanDiver, followed with discussion moderated by Steven Nelson Renee Maurer, associate curator, The Phillips Collection, and coordinating curator for Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful; Nell Irvin Painter, artist, Edwards Professor of American History Emerita, Princeton University, and Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful catalog contributor; and Rebecca VanDiver, assistant professor of African American art, Dean's Faculty Fellow (2019–2021), Mellon Faculty Fellow in Digital Humanities (2020–2021), Vanderbilt University, and Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful catalog contributor. Moderated by Steven Nelson, dean, the Center (Center for the Advanced Study in the Visual Arts), National Gallery of Art. Celebrate Alma W. Thomas's Legacy: https://www.nga.gov/learn/adults/john-wilmerding-symposium-community-celebration-alma-thomas.html Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks

Presentations on Thomas's studio art training and involvement with galleries, museums, and universities by Renee Maurer, Nell Irvin Painter, and Rebecca VanDiver, followed with discussion moderated by Steven Nelson Renee Maurer, associate curator, The Phillips Collection, and coordinating curator for Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful; Nell Irvin Painter, artist, Edwards Professor of American History Emerita, Princeton University, and Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful catalog contributor; and Rebecca VanDiver, assistant professor of African American art, Dean's Faculty Fellow (2019–2021), Mellon Faculty Fellow in Digital Humanities (2020–2021), Vanderbilt University, and Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful catalog contributor. Moderated by Steven Nelson, dean, the Center (Center for the Advanced Study in the Visual Arts), National Gallery of Art. Celebrate Alma W. Thomas's Legacy: https://www.nga.gov/learn/adults/john-wilmerding-symposium-community-celebration-alma-thomas.html Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks

Elizabeth Alexander, poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, cultural advocate, and president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, discuss their connections to Thomas's life and work. This conversation was filmed at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery while Alternative Worlds, a group exhibition featuring the work of Alma Thomas, was on view. Celebrate Alma W. Thomas's Legacy https://www.nga.gov/learn/adults/john-wilmerding-symposium-community-celebration-alma-thomas.html Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks

Working at the intersection of event and art, Mark Bradford explores social and political structures through large-scale abstract paintings created out of layered paper. Bradford's reimagining of modernist art explores how historical analysis and research affect form. Discover how his map-like, multilayered paper collages provide an opportunity to think about power, representation, and marginalized communities. Learn more about Bradford's work Legendary in the National Gallery of Art collection: https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-ob... Still haven't subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalle... National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalle... ABOUT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity. More National Gallery of Art Content: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationalgall... Twitter: https://twitter.com/ngadc Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ngadc/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ngadc/_crea... E-News: https://nga.us4.list-manage.com/subsc... #MarkBradford #Elson #ModernistArt #Collages #Map #Cartography #Paper #MarginalizedCommunities #Painting #Race #Gender #Class #Sexuality #Data #NationalGalleryofArt #museum #art

In her 2021 Rajiv Vaidya Memorial Lecture, Terri Simone Francis reflects on Josephine Baker's influence within the visual arts and theorizes Baker as both an international cultural figure and an African American film pioneer. Recent restorations of her films of the 1920s and 1930s have allowed her work to be seen in the context of recent cinema and media, indeed almost as recent cinema and media. In Francis's view Baker exemplifies what author Toni Morrison called a “rememory”—a remembered memory. Francis's study of Baker addresses absences and silences in film history, and she draws upon Morrison's concept of rememory and Baker's career to reconstruct the global beginnings of Black cinema. Ultimately, Francis is concerned with the film histories of the future, in which Black cinema history will be full of new unknowns, and believes that Baker's authorship can inform new vocabularies of film thinking, film writing, and film feeling.

In this lecture, released on December 3, 2021, Patricia Marroquin Norby (Purépecha), associate curator of Native American art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), discusses her recent research and curatorial practices that affirm Indigenous representations. Dr. Norby shares her vision for and approaches to collecting, presenting, and interpreting Native American art at the Met and beyond.

In this photograph, journalist and musician Celeste Headlee hears “Lenox Avenue,” a suite her grandfather William Grant Still named after Harlem's main street. This portrait captures the pride of Black Americans achieving success during the Harlem Renaissance despite systemic injustice. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app https://feeds.megaphone.fm/NGAT6207729686. Image credit: James Van Der Zee, Couple, Harlem, 1932, printed 1974, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, ©1969 Van Der Zee.

In this photograph, journalist and musician Celeste Headlee hears “Lenox Avenue,” a suite her grandfather William Grant Still named after Harlem's main street. This portrait captures the pride of Black Americans achieving success during the Harlem Renaissance despite systemic injustice. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app https://feeds.megaphone.fm/NGAT6207729686. Image credit: James Van Der Zee, Couple, Harlem, 1932, printed 1974, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, ©1969 Van Der Zee.

In this lecture, released on November 5, 2021, Babette Bohn of Texas Christian University discusses women artists in early modern Italy. Early modern Bologna was exceptional for its many talented women artists. Thanks to a long-standing tradition of honoring accomplished women, several attentive artistic biographers, strong local interest in collecting women's work, and permissive attitudes toward women studying with male artists who were not family members, Bologna was home to more women artists than any other city in early modern Italy. Bolognese women artists were unusual not only for their large numbers but also for their varied specializations and frequent public success. They painted altarpieces, nudes, mythologies, allegories, portraits, and self-portraits, creating sculptures, drawings, prints, embroidery, and paintings. This lecture challenges some common assumptions about women artists, suggesting productive approaches for future research. This is the twenty-fifth annual lecture offered by the National Gallery of Art in this endowed series named after Sydney J. Freedberg (1914–1997), the great specialist of Italian art.

Messages, meanings, movements—how does art history help us understand our world? Join curators, historians, artists, musicians, and filmmakers as they explore art and its histories in a search for our shared humanity. Subscrible to National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://bit.ly/3mfNeiO

In an improvised musical conversation, jazz bassist Christian McBride introduces himself to David. Connecting over McBride's walking bass line, they meet David's friends, splash by the fire hydrant, play stickball. Through David, McBride recalls his own childlike innocence. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/christian-mcbride-roy-decarava-david.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

In an improvised musical conversation, jazz bassist Christian McBride introduces himself to David. Connecting over McBride's walking bass line, they meet David's friends, splash by the fire hydrant, play stickball. Through David, McBride recalls his own childlike innocence. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/christian-mcbride-roy-decarava-david.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

Jennifer L. Roberts, Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University. In this six-part lecture series titled Contact: Art and the Pull of Print, Roberts will focus on printmaking as an art of physical contact, involving transfer under pressure between surfaces—a direct touch that can evoke multiple forms of intimacy. And yet it is simultaneously an art of estrangement: it requires the deferral, displacement, and distribution of artistic agency, and it trades in reversal and inversion. In this sixth and final lecture, “Alienation,” premiered on the National Gallery's website on May 30, 2021, Roberts explores the intricate and often counterintuitive effort of creating matrices for printing (woodblocks, copperplates, etc.) has been a form of invisible labor for centuries. How do we think about the relationship between the time and skill put into the matric and the value of the image in generates? (Or: where does all the time go?) This final lecture investigates the misregistration of time in print, especially in terms of the conflicts—and convergences—between slow and fast media that are frequently staged in contemporary printmaking.

Jennifer L. Roberts, Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University. In this six-part lecture series titled Contact: Art and the Pull of Print, Roberts focuses on printmaking as an art of physical contact, involving transfer under pressure between surfaces—a direct touch that can evoke multiple forms of intimacy. And yet it is simultaneously an art of estrangement: it requires the deferral, displacement, and distribution of artistic agency, and it trades in reversal and inversion. In this fifth lecture, “Interference,” premiered on the National Gallery’s website on May 23, 2021, Roberts explores how the layering of images in printmaking, especially when grids and regular linework are involved, often results in the emergence of interference or moiré patterns. While printers usually work hard to keep these disruptive eruptions at bay, some artists have cultivated them, allowing unruly patterns to emerge from the combination of seemingly rational image layers. Moiré patterns also bring printmaking into conversation with the sound arts, which are built on the same waves, frequencies, and beats that are used to describe print interference.

Composer Daniel Bernard Roumain works with performance poet Lady Caress to respond to this iconic photograph with a combination of music and poetry. In the ebb and flow of his composition, DBR hopes to capture pain, legacy, enduring hope—and the rhythm of the subject's life. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/daniel-bernard-roumain-american-gothic.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

Composer Daniel Bernard Roumain works with performance poet Lady Caress to respond to this iconic photograph with a combination of music and poetry. In the ebb and flow of his composition, DBR hopes to capture pain, legacy, enduring hope—and the rhythm of the subject’s life. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/daniel-bernard-roumain-american-gothic.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

Composer Nathalie Joachim sees her childhood memories in May Flowers. The photograph also evokes the uniquely spiritual experience of recording a church choir in her family’s Haitian village. Joachim has lovingly woven their song into her composition. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/nathalie-joachim-carrie-mae-weems-may-flowers.html.Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

Composer Nathalie Joachim sees her childhood memories in May Flowers. The photograph also evokes the uniquely spiritual experience of recording a church choir in her family's Haitian village. Joachim has lovingly woven their song into her composition. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/nathalie-joachim-carrie-mae-weems-may-flowers.html.Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Bora Yoon considers whether we carry the sounds and memories of our people within us. In her response to Nam June Paik’s video sculpture, she brings together both traditional Korean instruments and eclectic electronic music. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/bora-yoon-and-ommah.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Bora Yoon considers whether we carry the sounds and memories of our people within us. In her response to Nam June Paik's video sculpture, she brings together both traditional Korean instruments and eclectic electronic music. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/bora-yoon-and-ommah.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

Musician Rafiq Bhatia feels compelled to capture his improvisations—fleeting moments of sound—in recordings. Like sound, light is transient. But James Turrell’s works, which inspired Bhatia’s composition, contain and present light, allowing us to forge a deeper relationship with an ephemeral substance. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/rafiq-bhatia-james-turrell-new-light.html.Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

Musician Rafiq Bhatia feels compelled to capture his improvisations—fleeting moments of sound—in recordings. Like sound, light is transient. But James Turrell's works, which inspired Bhatia's composition, contain and present light, allowing us to forge a deeper relationship with an ephemeral substance. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/rafiq-bhatia-james-turrell-new-light.html.Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

For classical pianist and activist Lara Downes, Romare Bearden's collage is a puzzle full of questions and unfinished business. In response, she brings together different musical sources, overlaying sounds to create both harmony and tension. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/lara-downes-and-tomorrow-i-may-be-far-away.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

For classical pianist and activist Lara Downes, Romare Bearden’s collage is a puzzle full of questions and unfinished business. In response, she brings together different musical sources, overlaying sounds to create both harmony and tension. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/lara-downes-and-tomorrow-i-may-be-far-away.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

Hip-hop artist Jasiri X looks at Kerry James Marshall’s woodcut almost like he’s looking into a mirror. It captures the experience of a Black man: resilient but restrained from being his authentic self. Jasiri responds to the work through two songs that reflect on his internal struggle. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/jasiri-x-untitled-man.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

Hip-hop artist Jasiri X looks at Kerry James Marshall's woodcut almost like he's looking into a mirror. It captures the experience of a Black man: resilient but restrained from being his authentic self. Jasiri responds to the work through two songs that reflect on his internal struggle. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/jasiri-x-untitled-man.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

Composer-pianist Vijay Iyer describes the East Building as a work of art that does what music does: invites you in—to inhabit, explore, and be among others. He responds with pieces that balance pattern and structure with leaving room to wander. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/vijay-iyer-im-pei-east-building.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

Composer-pianist Vijay Iyer describes the East Building as a work of art that does what music does: invites you in—to inhabit, explore, and be among others. He responds with pieces that balance pattern and structure with leaving room to wander. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/vijay-iyer-im-pei-east-building.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app

When her sister was dying, composer Kamala Sankaram was drawn to Mark Rothko's painting: it both captured her grief and calmed her. That experience influenced Sankaram's approach to creating a musical score, which she shares in this episode. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/kamala-sankaram-mark-rothko.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.

Composer/producer Emily Wells sees us as the buffalo: frozen before downfall, but still alive—which is why she includes so much breath in her song. Wells, whose work deals with the climate crisis, looks to David Wojnarowicz's AIDS activism for lessons. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/emily-wells-david-wojnarowicz.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.

Composer/producer Emily Wells sees us as the buffalo: frozen before downfall, but still alive—which is why she includes so much breath in her song. Wells, whose work deals with the climate crisis, looks to David Wojnarowicz’s AIDS activism for lessons. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/emily-wells-david-wojnarowicz.html.

Stanley Nelson, documentary filmmaker and cofounder, Firelight Media, and Marcia Smith, writer, film producer, president and cofounder, Firelight Media In 2000, Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith founded Firelight Media, a nonprofit production company dedicated to using historical film to advance contemporary social justice causes. Through initiatives like the flagship Documentary Lab, Firelight Media’s programming has expanded to mentor, inspire, and train a new generation of diverse young filmmakers committed to elevating underrepresented stories. Firelight also builds impact campaigns to connect documentaries to audiences and social justice advocates. Under Smith’s leadership, Firelight received a MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions in 2016. Nelson is a documentary filmmaker whose work combines compelling narratives with rich and deeply researched historical detail, shining new light on both familiar and underexplored aspects of the American past. In addition to honors for individual films, Nelson and his body of work have garnered every major award in the industry, such as the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2002), the National Humanities Medal (2013), and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (2016). As a writer and film producer, Smith has been the recipient of a Primetime Emmy nomination for writing (2003), the Writers Guild Award for best nonfiction writing (2004), the Muse Award for New York Women in Film and Television (2016), and a Luminary Award from BlackStar Film Festival (2019), among others. In this conversation recorded on September 24, 2020, as part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series, Nelson and Smith discuss their own mentors and influences, their collaborative practice, and how Firelight has become a premier destination for nonfiction cinema by and about communities of color.

When her sister was dying, composer Kamala Sankaram was drawn to Mark Rothko’s painting: it both captured her grief and calmed her. That experience influenced Sankaram’s approach to creating a musical score, which she shares in this episode. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/kamala-sankaram-mark-rothko.html.