Podcasts about Ashmolean Museum

From the Capitoline Museum in Rome to the Museum of Ennigaldi-Nanna (a princess of Babylon) and the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, this episode of Big Blend Radio's WORLD OF ART Podcast with artist Victoria Chick is Part One of her three-part series on the history of Art Museums. This global themed show celebrates International Friendship Month and National Library Month since museums are also home to libraries!  Victoria is the catalyst behind the Southwest Regional Museum of Art & Art Center project in Silver City, New Mexico. You can learn more about the Museum effort and read her article about the History of Art Museums (Part One), here: https://www.southwest-art-museum.org/articles/art-museums-a-history-part-one  Victoria Chick is a contemporary figurative artist and early 19th/20th century print collector based in Silver City, New Mexico. Visit: https://victoriachick.com/  Victoria appears on Big Blend Radio every 3rd Saturday. Follow the podcast: https://worldofart-victoriachick.podbean.com/  This episode is also featured on Big Blend Radio's "Way Back When," "Toast to The Arts," "Women Making History," and "Big Daily Blend" Podcast Channels. Check out our network of shows: https://www.podbean.com/podcast-network/bigblendradionetwork 

Next month, the German artist Anselm Kiefer will be 80, and the first of a number of shows internationally to mark this landmark moment opened this week at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK. It focuses on his early works, and Ben Luke visits Oxford to discuss this pivotal moment in his career with Lena Fritsch, the curator of the exhibition. The latest edition of the biennial in the United Arab Emirate of Sharjah opened earlier this month. The Art Newspaper's correspondent Dale Berning Sawa visited during opening week and spoke to Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, the president and director of Sharjah Art Foundation, which runs the biennial, about this year's edition, her journey in art, and her role in establishing the biennial as a leading art world event. And this episode's Work of the Week is Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto (1901) by Pablo Picasso, a painting from the artist's Blue Period. Conservators at The Courtauld Institute in London have discovered an image of a mystery woman hidden beneath this portrait of De Soto, Picasso's friend and fellow artist. We talk to Barnaby Wright, deputy head of The Courtauld Gallery, about the painting and the image beneath it. The work features in a new exhibition at the gallery, Goya to Impressionism. Masterpieces from the Oskar Reinhart Collection.Anselm Kiefer: Early Works, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK, 14 February-15 June; Anselm Kiefer: Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 7 March-9 June; Kiefer / Van Gogh, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 28 June-26 October; Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Ocean, Saint Louis Art Museum, US, 18 October 2025-25 January 2026To carry, the 16th Sharjah Biennial, until 15 June 2025.The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Goya to Impressionism. Masterpieces from the Oskar Reinhart Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14 February-26 May.The Art Newspaper's book The Year Ahead 2025, an authoritative guide to the year's unmissable art exhibitions, museum openings and significant art events, is still available to buy at theartnewspaper.com for £14.99 or the equivalent in your currency. Buy it here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A 2025 preview: Georgina Adam, our editor-at-large, tells host Ben Luke what might lie ahead for the market. And Ben is joined by Jane Morris, editor-at-large, and Gareth Harris, chief contributing editor, to select the big museum openings, biennials and exhibitions.All shows discussed are in The Art Newspaper's The Year Ahead 2025, priced £14.99 or the equivalent in your currency. Buy it here.Exhibitions: Site Santa Fe International, Santa Fe, US, 28 Jun-13 Jan 2026; Liverpool Biennial, 7 Jun-14 Sep; Folkestone Triennial, 19 Jul-19 Oct; Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 5 Apr-2 Sep; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, 19 Oct-7 Feb 2026; Gabriele Münter, Guggenheim Museum, New York, 7 Nov-26 Apr 2026; Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, 4 Apr-24 Aug; Elizabeth Catlett: a Black Revolutionary Artist, Brooklyn Museum, New York, until 19 Jan; National Gallery of Art (NGA), Washington DC, 9 Mar-6 Jul; Art Institute of Chicago, US, 30 Aug-4 Jan 2026; Ithell Colquhoun, Tate Britain, London, 13 Jun-19 Oct; Abstract Erotic: Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Alice Adams, Courtauld Gallery, London, 20 Jun-14 Sep; Michaelina Wautier, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 30 Sep-25 Jan 2026; Radical! Women Artists and Modernism, Belvedere, Vienna, 18 Jun-12 Oct; Dangerously Modern: Australian Women Artists in Europe, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 24 May-7 Sep; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 11 Oct-1 Feb 2026; Lorna Simpson: Source Notes, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 19 May-2 Nov; Amy Sherald: American Sublime, SFMOMA, to 9 Mar; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 9 Apr-Aug; National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC, 19 Sep-22 Feb 2026; Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior, Cincinnati Art Museum, 14 Feb-4 May; Cleveland Museum of Art, US, 14 Feb-8 Jun; Cantor Arts Center, Stanford, US, 1 Oct-25 Jan 2026; Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting, National Portrait Gallery, London, 20 Jun-7 Sep; Linder: Danger Came Smiling, Hayward Gallery, London, 11 Feb-5 May; Arpita Singh, Serpentine Galleries, London, 13 Mar-27 Jul; Vija Celmins, Beyeler Collection, Basel, 15 Jun-21 Sep; An Indigenous Present, ICA/Boston, US, 9 Oct-8 Mar 2026; The Stars We Do Not See, NGA, Washington, DC, 18 Oct-1 Mar 2026; Duane Linklater, Dia Chelsea, 12 Sep-24 Jan 2026; Camden Art Centre, London, 4 Jul-21 Sep; Vienna Secession, 29 Nov-22 Feb 2026; Emily Kam Kngwarray, Tate Modern, London, 10 Jul-13 Jan 2026; Archie Moore, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, 30 Aug-23 Aug 2026; Histories of Ecology, MASP, Sao Paulo, 5 Sep-1 Feb 2026; Jack Whitten, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 23 Mar-2 Aug; Wifredo Lam, Museum of Modern Art, Rashid Johnson, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 18 Apr-18 Jan 2026; Adam Pendleton, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, 4 Apr-3 Jan 2027; Marie Antoinette Style, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 20 Sep-22 Mar 2026; Leigh Bowery!, Tate Modern, 27 Feb- 31 Aug; Blitz: the Club That Shaped the 80s, Design Museum, London, 19 Sep-29 Mar 2026; Do Ho Suh, Tate Modern, 1 May-26 Oct; Picasso: the Three Dancers, Tate Modern, 25 Sep-1 Apr 2026; Ed Atkins, Tate Britain, London, 2 Apr-25 Aug; Turner and Constable, Tate Britain, 27 Nov-12 Apr 2026; British Museum: Hiroshige, 1 May-7 Sep; Watteau and Circle, 15 May-14 Sep; Ancient India, 22 May-12 Oct; Kerry James Marshall, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 20 Sep-18 Jan 2026; Kiefer/Van Gogh, Royal Academy, 28 Jun-26 Oct; Anselm Kiefer, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 14 Feb-15 Jun; Anselm Kiefer, Van Gogh Museum, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 7 Mar-9 Jun; Cimabue, Louvre, Paris, 22 Jan-12 May; Black Paris, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 19 Mar-30 Jun; Machine Love, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 13 Feb-8 Jun Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Experts discuss how the latest 3D recording technology has supported their research by revealing near-invisible markings from originals held at Oxford University Institutions The very latest in 3D recording technology has revealed near-invisible markings from originals held at Oxford University institutions. Imagery captured with this technology shows what has never before been possible to record. These recordings have assisted researchers in making exciting discoveries which will be shared at this event. In this presentation, a panel of experts will discuss how recordings have supported their research. Incised text from second century wax tablets, newly discovered designs found on the reverse of copper printing plates and examples of preparatory stylus markings from High Renaissance drawings will all be explored through these incredible new images. Recordings of specimens from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History will demonstrate how this new method for 3D acquisition could have the potential to assist in the classification of species. The technology used to create these recordings will be described and explained by their designer, and the Bodleian's imaging specialist. Members of Bodleian Digital Library Systems and Services will demonstrate online viewers to disseminate these 3D recordings, and newly developed tools which allow users to interact with them. ARCHiOx – Analysis and Recording of Cultural Heritage in Oxford – is a collaborative project bringing together the Bodleian Libraries and the Factum Foundation. Based in Madrid, the Factum Foundation specialises in high-resolution 3D imaging and has worked in cultural heritage institutions throughout the world, producing exceptional, three-dimensional facsimiles of artworks and artefacts. Speakers Adam Lowe is the director of Factum Arte and founder of Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Preservation. Founded in 2001, Factum Arte is a multidisciplinary workshop dedicated to digital mediation for the production of works for contemporary artists. John Barrett is Senior Photographer for the Bodleian Libraries. Since 2005, John has provided photographs of Bodleian originals for numerous publications. His work involves the development of new methods of recording special collections material. John is technical lead at the Bodleian for ARCHiOx. Jorge Cano is Head of Technology at Factum Foundation. He has developed a multidisciplinary career working in the intersections of art and technology. Jorge is an expert in 3D recording, image filtering and Geographical Information Systems. Carlos Bayod is Project Director at the Factum Foundation. His work is dedicated to the development and application of digital technology to the recording, study and dissemination of cultural heritage. Richard Allen is a Software Engineer for Bodleian Digital Library Systems and Services where he works primarily supporting Digital Bodleian and the Imaging Studio DAMS. He is also CEO of an Oxford University spinout company called Palaeopi Limited that specialises in photogrammetry. Angelamaria Aceto is a Senior Research in Italian Drawings at Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. Dr. Mark Crosby, FSA is an associate Professor and Director of the K-State Digital Humanities Center at the Department of English, Kansas State University. With an introduction by Richard Ovenden OBE, Bodley's Librarian & Head of Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM) The project has been generously funded by The Helen Hamlyn Trust.

Ep.223 Pio Abad (b.1983) is an artist whose work is concerned with the personal and political entanglements of objects. His wide-ranging body of work, mines alternative or repressed historical events and offers counter narratives that draw out threads of complicity between incidents, ideologies and people. Deeply informed by unfolding events in the Philippines, where the artist was born and raised, his work emanates from a family narrative woven into the nation's story. He has exhibited at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; 58th Carnegie International; the 5th Kochi-Muziris Biennial; Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Kadist, San Francisco; Oakville Galleries, Ontario; the 2nd Honolulu Biennial; 12th Gwangju Biennial; 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney and Gasworks, London. He was recently nominated for the 2024 Turner Prize. Abad's works are part of a number of important collections including Tate, UK; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Hawai​i State Art Museum, Honolulu and Singapore Art Museum. Abad is also the curator of the estate of his aunt, the Filipino American artist Pacita Abad. He has co-curated monographic exhibitions on Pacita Abad at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design Manila and Spike Island, Bristol. Photo Credit: Frances Wadsworth Jones Artist https://www.pioabad.com/ Tate Museum https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/pio-abad-30636/pio-abad-beautiful-things-can-be-vessels-for-painful-stories Ashmolean Museum https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/ashmolean-now-pio-abad-those-sitting-in-darkness | Shortlist Turner Prize https://www.ashmolean.org/press/ashmolean-now-pio-abad-turner-prize-shortlist-press-release Pacita Abad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacita_Abad | https://ago.ca/events/pacita-abad-roundtable-conversation | https://tinakimgallery.com/news/205-first-of-its-kind-retrospective-of-filipino-artist-pacita-abad-opens-cbs-news/ Frieze https://www.frieze.com/article/frieze-masters-magazine-2024-pio-abad-gerret-willemsz-heda University of Oxford https://www.glam.ox.ac.uk/article/artist-pio-abads-exhibition-at-the-ashmolean-museum-shortlisted-for-2024-turner-prize Royal Academy https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/pio-abad Kadist https://kadist.org/people/pio-abad/ Wallpaper https://www.wallpaper.com/art/turner-prize-2024-artists Widewalls https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/pio-abad-2024-turner-prize Artnet News https://news.artnet.com/art-world/who-will-clinch-the-u-k-s-top-art-honor-inside-the-turner-prize-exhibition-2541699 Museums Association https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2024/09/turner-prize-artist-explores-ashmolean-collection/ Vogue Philippines https://vogue.ph/lifestyle/art/pio-abad-exhibit-turner-prize/ | Pacita Abad https://vogue.ph/lifestyle/art/pacita-abad-decades-strong-path-of-color-set-ablaze/ Tatler Asia https://www.tatlerasia.com/lifestyle/arts/turner-prize-pio-abad-interview Open Space Contemporary https://www.openspacecontemporary.com/projects/10-minutes-with-open-space/10-minutes-with-pio-abad/ Silver Lens https://www.silverlensgalleries.com/artists/pio-abad

Silvester im Jahr 1999. Die ganze Welt fiebert dem Feuerwerk und dem neuen Jahrtausend entgegen. Aber einer will nicht feiern, sondern die Gelegenheit für einen ausgefuchsten Diebstahl nutzen. Von Sarah Ziegler.

Ein wertvolles Gemälde des Malers Paul Cezanne ist in England verschwunden. Die Polizei bekommt erste Hinweise - aber kann die Polizei das Bild damit wiederfinden? Von Sarah Ziegler.

Joy Harcup is an executive coach and board reviewer at Praesta Partners and author of The Art & Psychology of Board Relationships. Dame Una O'Brien is on the boards of Lloyd's Register Museum and Ashmolean Museum. A former Permanent Secretary of the UK Department of Health, she is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Government. Tune in to hear their thoughts on: Can you explain the 7 archetypal negative dynamics you've identified? (2:53) Can you talk through how some of the specific archetypes have played out for you in the boardroom? (8:46) Can we use the above example to look at the psychology of see-sawing? (12:21) What do the terms “projection”, “transference” and “pairing” mean in a boardroom context? (16:55) What would you say to those who dismiss these ideas as psychobabble? (19:21) Can you give a boardroom example where you have resolved someone's projection? (21:34) How have you experienced the doomsday scenario in the boardroom? (24:45) Can you talk through the “stand-off” dynamic in boardrooms? (33:50) ⚡ The Lightning Round ⚡(36:50) Show notes and transcript available at https://www.nurole.com/news-and-guides

Pour ce 757ème épisode du NFT Morning, nous avons inauguré une nouvelle série intitulée WAC Morning, en collaboration avec Diane Drubay et Fanny Lakoubay d"e WAC Lab (Web3 for the Arts and Culture). Dans ce premier épisode nous avons exploré les événements marquants de l'été 2024 dans le domaine du Web3, en particulier liés aux musées et aux institutions culturelles.Diane et Fanny ont notamment évoqué des expositions d'art digital comme celles de sabatobox, rodellwarner, annaxmalina à la Moving Image NYC, et d'artistes comme yatreda au Toledo Museum. Elles sont également revenues sur les acquisitions notables réalisées par des musées prestigieux, comme les œuvres de CaballeroAnaMa et AlexEstorick pour le Ashmolean Museum, ou encore celles d'Albertine Meunier pour le Centre Pompidou.Ce podcast met également en lumière les prochains événements à venir dans l'écosystème Web3 et l'art digital, comme des expositions avec Hermine Bourdin à l'Opéra de Paris et Sasha Stiles au Museum of Art and Light, ainsi que la section d'art digital organisée par Nina Roehrs à la Paris Photo Fair.Le WAC Lab, fondé en 2021, est une initiative pionnière pour aider les institutions culturelles à adopter les technologies Web3. Il propose des programmes comme le WAC Factory, une série d'incubateurs pour guider les musées dans la création de projets innovants, en collaboration avec des intégrateurs Web3​(=.Retrouvez le replay vidéo de l'épisode ici:Liens utiles :* WAC Lab : wac-lab.xyz* We Are Museums : wearemuseums.com* Compte Twitter de Fanny Lakoubay* Compte Twitter de Diane Drubay* L'exposition d'Ix Shells à Copenhague This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nftmorning.com

Named after the radical painter JMW Turner, the Turner Prize was set up in 1984 to celebrate British Contemporary Artists.   On Tuesday 24 September 2024 Tate Britain unveiled the work of the four artists who have been shortlisted for this year's prize: Pio Abad, Jasleen Kaur, Claudette Johnson and Delaine Le Bas. At the press view for the Turner Prize 2024 exhibition RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey caught up with one of the Curator's of the exhibition Amy Emmerson Martin, Assistant Curator, Contemporary British Art at Tate Britain to firstly find out a bit more about the history and background to the Turner Prize to then an introduction to each of the four shortlisted Artists along with an overview of their work that impressed the Turner Prize panel which is on display at Tate Britain.   The winner of the Turner Prize 2024 will be announced on 3 December and the exhibition of the four shortlisted Artists work continues at Tate Britain until 16 February 2025. Description tours with one of Tate's Visitor Engagement Assistants can be booked in advance by either emailing hello@tate.org.uk or calling 020 7887 8888. About the four shortlisted Artists: Pio Abad presents a restaging of his nominated exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, which explores cultural loss and colonial histories. Featuring drawings, sculptures and museum artefacts, Abad brings together in-depth research and collaboration to highlight overlooked histories and connections to everyday life, often from the perspective of his Filipino heritage. Newly added works include Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite 2019, which reimagines an Imelda Marcos bracelet as a three-metre concrete sculpture, are shown alongside works like I am singing a song that can only be borne after losing a country 2023, a drawing that turns the underside of Powhatan's Mantle - a Native American robe in the Ashmolean's collection - into an imagined map of colonised lands. Jasleen Kaur presents works from her nominated exhibition at Tramway, Glasgow. Rethinking tradition, Kaur creates sculptures from gathered and remade objects, each animated through an immersive sound composition. Items including family photos, a harmonium, Axminster carpet and kinetic worship bells are orchestrated to convey the artist's upbringing in Glasgow. A central feature is music, which is used to explore both inherited and hidden histories. Yearnings 2023, is an improvised vocal soundscape of the artist's voice, which is layered over snippets of pop songs playing from the speakers of Sociomobile 2023, a vintage Ford Escort covered with a large doily crocheted from cotton and filling the space with Kaur's own musical memory. Delaine Le Bas presents a restaging of her nominated exhibition at the Secession, Vienna. For her Turner Prize presentation, the artist has transformed the gallery into a monumental immersive environment filled with painted fabrics, costume, film and sculpture. Presented across three chambers, the work addresses themes of death, loss and renewal, and draws on the rich cultural history of the Roma people and the artist's engagement with mythologies. Textile sculpture Marley 2023, for example, reimagines Dickens' ghostly eponymous character as a harbinger of chaos, welcoming the viewer to this carefully constructed and captivating world, whilst the film Incipit Vita Nova 2023, projected onto organdie fabric, transports the viewer deep into a dreamlike sequence, matching the fluidity and distortion of the mirrored walls around it. Claudette Johnson presents a series of works from her nominated exhibitions at The Courtauld Gallery, London and Ortuzar Projects, New York, alongside new works. Using pastels, gouache, oil and watercolour, Johnson creates striking figurative portraits of Black women and men, often depicting family and friends. Her works counter the marginalisation of Black people in Western art history, shifting perspectives and investing her portraits with a palpable sense of presence. Friends in Green + Red on Yellow 2023 represents a recent development in her practice of creating double portraits, whilst Pieta 2024 is one of the artist's first works on wood, made from pastel and oil on bark cloth. You will find out more about the Turner Prize 2024 exhibition by visiting the following pages of the Tate website - https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/turner-prize-2024 Image show the entrance to Tate Britain with two red banners reading 'Tate Britain' and  'Free For All'

Rebecca Abrams is a British author, teacher and journalist, based in Oxford. She is a long-standing tutor on the Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford and a regular literary critic for the Financial Times.Rebecca produces both fiction and non-fiction. Her 2022 book ‘Licoricia of Winchester: Power and Prejudice in Medieval England' was written in collaboration with The Licoricia of Winchester Appeal, and has met withcritical success in the UK and beyond. Other works include Touching Distance;The Jewish Journey (in collaboration with the Ashmolean Museum); When Parents Die; and Three Shoes One Sock & No Hairbrush.

Naomi Wolf joins me to discuss the 2024 election season and all the strangeness. She predicts that the election won't take place; that an event of some sort will cause it to be suspended. This will ultimately usher in a communist dictatorship led by the democrats. She claims that in reality the coup has already taken place and she elaborates on why she believes this. It is true that we are dealing with people who are irrational and power hungry. A combination that could ultimately lead to disasters of unimagineable proportions. You can follow Naomi on her website at https://dailyclout.io/ or follow her on her Rumble channel at https://rumble.com/user/DailyClout Links mentioned in the show: Miles Franklin: Learn more how you can convert your IRA or buy precious metals by emailing info@MilesFranklin.com - tell them ‘Sarah sent me” and get the best service and prices in the country. Nano Soma: Try the Amazing Nano Soma line of products and receive a 10% discount at https://iwantmyhealthback.com/sarah MasterPeace: Remove Heavy Metals including Graphene Oxide and Plastics at https://masterpeacebyhcs.com/my-account/uap/?ref=11308 Consider subscribing: Follow on Twitter @Sarah_Westall Follow on my Substack at SarahWestall.Substack.com See Important Proven Solutions to Keep Your from getting sick even if you had the mRNA Shot - Dr. Nieusma MUSIC CREDITS: “In Epic World” by Valentina Gribanova, licensed for broad internet media use, including video and audio     See on Bastyon | Bitchute | Brighteon | Clouthub | Odysee | Rumble | Youtube | Tube.Freedom.Buzz     Biography of Naomi Wolf Dr Naomi Wolf received a D Phil Degree in English Literature from the University of Oxford in 2015. Dr Wolf taught Victorian Studies as a Visiting Professor at SUNY Stony Brook, received a Barnard College Research Fellowship at the Center for Women and Gender, was recipient of a Rothermere American Institute Research Fellowship for her work on John Addington Symonds at the University of Oxford, and taught English Literature at George Washington University as a visiting lecturer. She's lectured widely on the themes in Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love, presenting lectures on Symonds and the themes in Outrages at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, at Balliol College, Oxford, and to the undergraduates in the English Faculty at the University of Oxford. She lectured about Symonds and Outrages for the first LGBTQ Colloquium at Rhodes House. Dr Wolf was a Rhodes Scholar and a Yale graduate. She's written eight nonfiction bestsellers, about women's issues and civil liberties, and is the CEO of DailyClout.io, a news site and legislative database in which actual US state and Federal legislation is shared digitally and read and explained weekly. She holds an honorary doctorate from Sweet Briar College. She and her family live in New York City.    

Shreya Gupta interviews Dr Shailendra Bhandare, Curator of South Asian and Far-eastern Coins and Paper Money at the Ashmolean Museum

Rebecca Abrams is a British author, teacher and journalist, based in Oxford. She is a long-standing tutor on the Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford and a regular literary critic for the Financial Times.Rebecca produces both fiction and non-fiction. Her 2022 book ‘Licoricia of Winchester: Power and Prejudice in Medieval England' was written in collaboration with The Licoricia of Winchester Appeal, and has met withcritical success in the UK and beyond. Other works include Touching Distance;The Jewish Journey (in collaboration with the Ashmolean Museum); When Parents Die; and Three Shoes One Sock & No Hairbrush.

Artist Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, and Hans Ulrich Obrist and Tamsin Hong of The Serpentine Galleries, coat London's historic statues and public monuments with fresh layers of history. For over 30 years, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA has used Western European art history to explore contemporary culture and national identities. With his iconic use of Dutch wax print fabric - inspired by Indonesian batik designs, mass-produced in the Netherlands (and now China) and sold to British colonies in West Africa - he troubles ideas of ‘authentic' ‘African prints'. Painting these colourful patterns on his smaller-scale replicas of sculptures of British figures like Winston Churchill, Robert Clive, and Robert Milligan, he engages with contemporary debates raised in Black Lives Matter (#BLM) and the toppling of slave trader Edward Colston's statue in Bristol. Suspended States, the artist's first London solo exhibition in over 20 years, puts these questions of cultural identity and whiteness, within the modern contexts of globalisation, economics, and art markets. Wind Sculptures speak to movements across borders, other works how architectures of power affect refuge, migration, and the legacies of imperialism in wars, conflict, and peace today. With his Library series, we read into Wole Soyinka, Bisi Silva, and canonised 17th, 18th, and 19th century artists like Diego Velázquez, focussing on Yinka's engagement with Pablo Picasso, modernism, and ‘primitivism'. Hans Ulrich Obrist and Tamsin Hong highlight the connection between the Serpentine's ecological work, and Yinka's new woodcuts and drawings which consider the impact of colonisation on the environment. As a self-described ‘post-colonial hybrid', Yinka details his diasporic social practices, including his Guest Project experimental space in Hackney, and G.A.S. Foundation in Nigeria, and collaborations with young artists and researchers like Leo Robinson, Péjú Oshin, and Alayo Akinkubye. Yinka Shonibare: Suspended States runs at the Serpentine Galleries in London until 1 September 2024. Yinka is also an Invited Artist, and participant in Nigeria Imaginary, the official Nigerian Pavilion, at the 60th Venice Biennale, which runs until 24 November 2024. Part of EMPIRE LINES at Venice, a series of episodes leading to Foreigners Everywhere (Stranieri Ovunque), the 60th Venice Biennale or International Art Exhibition in Italy, in April 2024. For more about Dutch wax fabric and ‘African' textiles, listen to Lubaina Himid on Lost Threads (2021, 2023) at the Holburne Museum in Bath and British Textile Biennial 2021, and the British Museum's Dr. Chris Spring on Thabo, Thabiso and Blackx by Araminta de Clermont (2010)⁠. For more about Nelson's Ship in a Bottle (2010), listen to historicity London, a podcast series of audio walking tours, exploring how cities got to be the way they are. On bronze as the ‘media of history', hear artist Pio Abad on Giolo's Lament (2023) at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. And on the globalisation of ‘African' masks, listen to Tate curator Osei Bonsu in the episode about Ndidi Dike's A History of A City in a Box (2019). For more about the Blk Art Group, hear curator Dorothy Price on Claudette Johnson's And I Have My Own Business in This Skin (1982) at the Courtauld Gallery in London. Hear curator Folakunle Oshun, and more about Yinka Shonibare's Diary of a Victorian Dandy (1998), in the episode on Lagos Soundscapes by Emeka Ogboh (2023), at the South London Gallery. Read about Nengi Omuku in this article about Soulscapes at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. And for other artists inspired by the port city of Venice, hear John Akomfrah of the British Pavilion (2024) on ⁠Arcadia (2023)⁠ at The Box in Plymouth. WITH: Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, British-Nigerian artist. Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, and Tamsin Hong, Exhibitions Curator, at the Serpentine Galleries in London. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠

Artist and archivist Pio Abad draws out lines between Oxford, the Americas, and the Philippines, making personal connections with historic collections, and reconstructing networks of trafficking, tattooing, and 20th century dictatorships. Pio Abad's practice is deeply informed by world histories, with a particular focus on the Philippines. Here, he was born and raised in a family of activists, at a time of conflict and corruption under the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos (1965-1986). His detailed reconstructions of their collection - acquired under the pseudonyms of Jane Ryan and William Saunders - expose Western/Europe complicities in Asian colonial histories, from Credit Suisse to the American Republican Party, and critique how many museums collect, display, and interpret the objects they hold today. In his first UK exhibition in a decade, titled for Mark Twain's anti-imperial satire, ‘To the Person Sitting in Darkness' (1901), Pio connects both local and global histories. With works across drawing, text, and sculpture, produced in collaboration with his partner, Frances Wadworth Jones, he reengages objects found at the University of Oxford, the Pitt Rivers Museum, St John's College, and Blenheim Palace - with histories often marginalised, ignored, or forgotten. He shares why his works often focus on the body, and how two tiaras, here reproduced in bronze, connect the Romanovs of the Russian Empire, to the Royal Family in the UK, all via Christie's auction house. Pio shares why he often shows alongside other artists, like Carlos Villa, and the political practice of Pacita Abad, a textile artist and his aunt. He talks about the ‘diasporic' objects in this display, his interest in jewellery, and use of media from bronze, to ‘monumental' marble. Finally, Pio suggests how objects are not things, but travelling ‘networks of relationships', challenging binaries of East and West, and historic and contemporary experiences, and locating himself within the archives. Ashmolean NOW: Pio Abad: To Those Sitting in Darkness runs at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford until 8 September 2024, accompanied by a full exhibition catalogue. Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts, Pio's forthcoming exhibition book, is co-published by Ateneo Art Gallery and Hato Press, and available online from the end of May 2025. For other artists who've worked with objects in Oxford's museum collections, read about: - Ashmolean NOW: Flora Yukhnovich and Daniel Crews-Chubbs, at the Ashmolean Museum. - Marina Abramović: Gates and Portals, at Modern Art Oxford and the Pitt Rivers Museum. For more about the history of the Spanish Empire in the Philippines, listen to Dr. Stephanie Porras' EMPIRE LINES on an ⁠Ivory Statue of St. Michael the Archangel, Basilica of Guadalupe (17th Century)⁠. And hear Taloi Havini, another artist working with Silverlens Gallery in the Philippines, on Habitat (2017), at Mostyn Gallery for Artes Mundi 10. WITH: Pio Abad, London-based artist, concerned with the personal and political entanglements of objects. His wide-ranging body of work, encompassing drawing, painting, textiles, installation and text, mines alternative or repressed historical events and offers counternarratives that draw out threads of complicity between incidents, ideologies and people. He is also the curator of the estate of his aunt, the Filipino American artist Pacita Abad. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠ And Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/empirelines

This week: the Whitney Biennial reviewed. Host Ben Luke discusses the show with Ben Sutton, The Art Newspaper's editor, Americas, and the critic Annabel Keenan. Our annual survey of visitor numbers at museums is published in the next print edition of The Art Newspaper and Lee Cheshire, the co-editor of the report, joins us to discuss the findings. And this episode's Work of the Week is Pieter Bruegel the Elder's drawing The Temptation of St Anthony (around 1556). It features in the exhibition Bruegel to Rubens: Great Flemish Drawings, which opens this weekend at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, UK. An Van Camp, the curator of the show, discusses this remarkable study.The Whitney Biennial: Even Better than the Real Thing, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, until 11 August.Bruegel to Rubens: Great Flemish Drawings, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK, 23 March-23 June. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Several years ago, a book caught my eye, called "Lu Xun's Legacy". Published by the Muban Educational Trust, a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of woodblock art in China and located in London, England, it opened my eyes to Chinese woodblock prints. Reading the book, I realized how little I knew about printmaking, woodblock or otherwise, from China. All I really knew was that Japanese woodblock has roots within Chinese printmaking and I was curious as to how that transpired. Today, I speak with Senior Research Fellow at the Muban Educational Trust, David Barker. David's interests lie in the history and techniques of Chinese printmaking, having written a book on the subject in 2005 called "Tradition and Techniques in Contemporary Chinese Printmaking". David speaks to me about the history of printmaking in China, its techniques, and process. David discusses his time in the country, how prints evolved from the pre-modern (Tang and Ming Dynasties, for instance) into more modern times. We discuss Lu Xun, and the history of purchasing and selling prints in China, and where printmaking in China is today. Please follow The Unfinished Print and my own mokuhanga work on Instagram @andrezadoroznyprints or email me at theunfinishedprint@gmail.com  Notes: may contain a hyperlink. Simply click on the highlighted word or phrase. Artists works follow after the note if available. Pieces are mokuhanga unless otherwise noted. Dimensions are given if known. Print publishers are given if known. Muban Educational Trust : website Lu Xun (1881-1936) : was a seminal figure in modern Chinese literature, renowned for his impactful short stories and essays that exposed the societal and political issues of his era. Born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, his works, including "The True Story of Ah Q" and "Diary of a Madman," critically examined the struggles of ordinary people and the shortcomings of traditional Chinese society. A staunch advocate for cultural and political reform, Lu Xun's writings continue to inspire and resonate with readers, solidifying his legacy as one of the most influential writers in 20th-century Chinese literature. Goldsmiths College: A renowned public research university in London known for its arts, design, and humanities programs. etching: A printmaking technique where an image is created by using acid to etch lines or textures onto a metal plate. lithography: A printing process where images are transferred onto a surface using a flat plate or stone. St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552): was a Roman Catholic missionary who played a significant role in spreading Christianity in Asia, particularly in Japan and India, during the 16th century. Shimabara Rebellion: was a 17th-century uprising in Japan led by Christian peasants against oppressive feudal lords and the prohibition of Christianity. Cultural Revolution: A socio-political movement in China initiated by Mao Zedong in the 1960s aimed at purging "counter-revolutionary" elements and promoting Maoist ideology. Mao Zedong (1893-1976) -  was the founder of the People's Republic of China and a key figure in Chinese communist history. Open Door Policy: A U.S. policy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries advocating for free trade and equal economic access to China among foreign powers. Gang of Four: A political faction led by Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing, during the Cultural Revolution, known for its radical and controversial policies. Anne Farrer PhD:  is the Senior Research Fellow at the MET with a BA in Chinese and a PhD in late Ming woodblock illustration from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She has served in various roles at the Ashmolean Museum and the British Museum, focusing on Chinese painting, prints, and Central Asian collections. Currently, she is the Programme Director for the MA in East Asian Art at Sotheby's Institute of Art in London and also works with the Muban Educational Trust. Dr. Farrer's exhibitions and publications span topics such as Chinese art from the Silk Route, traditional and contemporary Chinese printmaking, and she has a particular research interest in woodblock printing from seventeenth and eighteenth-century China. Tang Dynasty: An influential dynasty in Chinese history known for its cultural and economic prosperity during the 7th to 10th centuries. Ching Dynasty: Also known as the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912. Ming Dynasty: preceding the Qing Dynasty, known for its cultural renaissance and maritime exploration during the 14th to 17th centuries. gouache: is a water-based paint known for its opaque and vibrant colours. Made from pigment, water, and gum arabic as a binder, it offers artists versatility in creating both translucent washes and opaque layers. Gouache can be reactivated with water and comes in a range of colors, making it a popular choice for various painting techniques. Gauguin in the South Pacific: refers to the artistic period of Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) when he lived and worked in the South Pacific islands, producing vibrant and exotic paintings. kentō - is the registration system used by printmakers in order to line up the colour woodblocks with your key block, or outline block, carved first.   Ten Bamboo Studio: was a renowned Chinese printing studio established during the Qing Dynasty. Founded by Hu Zhengyan, it produced exquisite woodblock-printed books known for intricate designs and high-quality craftsmanship. These publications covered literature, poetry, painting, and calligraphy, showcasing meticulous detail and vibrant colors. Today, works from the Ten Bamboo Studio are treasured cultural artifacts admired globally for their beauty and historical significance. The Ding Workshops: was a renowned studio in China specializing in traditional woodblock printing. For generations, the Ding family mastered the art of printmaking, producing high-quality prints that often depicted landscapes, figures, and daily life scenes with intricate details and rich colors. Their prints were highly sought after and played a significant role in preserving and promoting Chinese artistic heritage.  Postmodernism in China: a cultural and artistic movement in China that emerged after the Cultural Revolution, characterized by a mix of traditional and contemporary influences. Christer von der Burg : founded the Han Shan Tang bookshop in 1978 in London, specializing in East Asian arts and culture books. Recognizing the underappreciation of Chinese prints compared to Japanese prints, he established the Muban Foundation in 1997 to promote Chinese printing knowledge. Over a decade, he amassed a collection of over 8,000 Chinese prints, now housed with the Muban Educational Trust. Retiring from the book business in 2000, Christer remains active, building one of the world's largest collections of antique Chinese prints, particularly from Suzhou. His passion has revitalized interest in Chinese woodblock printing, educating both artists and collectors on its significance, evident in today's rising print values at Chinese auctions. Cleveland Museum: The Cleveland Museum of Art, a major art museum located in Cleveland, Ohio, known for its diverse collection spanning various cultures and time periods. British Museum: A world-renowned museum in London, housing a vast collection of art and artifacts from around the world. The Ashmolean Museum: in Oxford, England, one of the oldest public museums in the world, known for its extensive collection of art and archaeology. The Dresden Museum of Art: is renowned for its diverse collection of artworks from various periods and styles. Founded in the 19th century, it features masterpieces by artists like Raphael and Rembrandt. The museum's elegant architecture and rotating exhibitions attract art enthusiasts worldwide, making it a cultural hub in Dresden. Crown Point Press: A prestigious printmaking studio and publisher based in San Francisco, known for collaborating with renowned artists. oban: A traditional Japanese print size, approximately 10 x 15 inches, often used for Japanese style woodblock prints. Huizhou :located in Guangdong Province, China, is a city steeped in rich history and cultural heritage. Once a significant center of trade and commerce during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huizhou today blends its storied past with modern development. The city offers a mix of historical sites, natural parks, and cultural landmarks, making it a diverse and appealing destination. With its coastal location, Huizhou also attracts beachgoers and outdoor enthusiasts. Furthermore, its thriving economy, particularly in industries like electronics and petrochemicals, highlights its importance as a dynamic hub in southern China. Beijing: The capital city of China, known for its historic landmarks like the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, as well as its modern development. Tianjin: is situated in northeastern China, is a bustling metropolis renowned for its historical significance, vibrant culture, and modern development. As a major port city and economic hub, Tianjin blends traditional Chinese architecture and heritage sites with contemporary skyscrapers and bustling commercial districts. The city boasts a rich cultural scene, featuring theaters, museums, and galleries, as well as a diverse culinary landscape reflecting its cosmopolitan character. With its strategic location and rapid urbanization, Tianjin continues to thrive as a key player in China's economy and as a dynamic center for business, culture, and innovation. Yunnan Province -  is a diverse and culturally rich province in southwest China, known for its stunning landscapes, ethnic minorities, and traditional crafts. Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest and missionary who played a key role in early interactions between China and the West during the Ming Dynasty. Ricci learned Chinese, adopted local customs, and impressed Chinese intellectuals with his knowledge of Western science and technology. He collaborated with Chinese scholar Xu Guangqi to translate Western texts into Chinese, promoting cultural exchange. Despite challenges from both Chinese officials and European Jesuits, Ricci's efforts laid the foundation for future East-West interactions and understanding. Manchu : are an ethnic group primarily originating from the northeastern region of China, historically known as Manchuria. In the 17th century, under the leadership of the Aisin Gioro clan, the Manchu established the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China from 1644 to 1912. Initially a nomadic and tribal people, the Manchu gradually adopted Chinese culture, language, and governance systems as they integrated into the broader Chinese civilization. Despite their eventual assimilation, the Manchu maintained a distinct identity, characterized by their unique language, customs, and traditions. Today, the descendants of the Manchu continue to uphold their cultural heritage and identity, contributing to the rich tapestry of ethnic diversity within China.   © Popular Wheat Productions opening and closing musical credit - Car Hiss By My Window by The Doors from the album L.A. Woman released in 1971 by Elektra Records.  logo designed and produced by Douglas Batchelor and André Zadorozny  Disclaimer: Please do not reproduce or use anything from this podcast without shooting me an email and getting my express written or verbal consent. I'm friendly :) Слава Українi If you find any issue with something in the show notes please let me know. ***The opinions expressed by guests in The Unfinished Print podcast are not necessarily those of André Zadorozny and of Popular Wheat Productions.***

Adam's exploring the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the UK's oldest public museum. He's highlighting a unique audio trail available for visitors. One of the trail's stops involves a bone initially thought to belong to an elephant or a giant! We're also looking at Ashmolean Adventure, a digital family experience with multimedia activities focused on intriguing objects in the museum and take on a craft activity inspired by the Ashmolean Museum's collection.Join Fun Kids Podcasts+: https://funkidslive.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Naomi Wolf returns to the program to discuss her latest efforts to clean up the voting system and the shenanigans which followed. Incredible efforts to ensure the failed rigged system continues at the expense of all the citizens. She also discusses how other countries have begun to ban the COVID jab for kids. Not enough, but a good first step towards stopping a very dangerous product from being given to millions of people worldwide. You can learn more about Dr. Naomi Wolf at https://DailyClout.io or you can purchase her new book, "Facing the Beast: Courage, Faith, and Resistance in a New Dark Age" at https://www.amazon.com/Facing-Beast-Courage-Faith-Resistance/dp/1645022366   Links mentioned in the show: Learn more about Leela's Quantum Tech at https://bit.ly/3iVOMsZ or at https://SarahWestall.com/shop Learn more how you can convert your IRA or buy precious metals by emailing info@MilesFranklin.com - tell them ‘Sarah sent me” and get the best service and prices in the country. Consider subscribing: Follow on Twitter @Sarah_Westall Follow on my Substack at SarahWestall.Substack.com See Important Proven Solutions to Keep Your from getting sick even if you had the mRNA Shot - Dr. Nieusma MUSIC CREDITS: “In Epic World” by Valentina Gribanova, licensed for broad internet media use, including video and audio     See on Bastyon | Bitchute | CloutHub | Odysee | Rumble | Youtube | Tube.Freedom.Buzz     Biography of Naomi Wolf Dr Naomi Wolf received a D Phil Degree in English Literature from the University of Oxford in 2015. Dr Wolf taught Victorian Studies as a Visiting Professor at SUNY Stony Brook, received a Barnard College Research Fellowship at the Center for Women and Gender, was recipient of a Rothermere American Institute Research Fellowship for her work on John Addington Symonds at the University of Oxford, and taught English Literature at George Washington University as a visiting lecturer. She's lectured widely on the themes in Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love, presenting lectures on Symonds and the themes in Outrages at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, at Balliol College, Oxford, and to the undergraduates in the English Faculty at the University of Oxford. She lectured about Symonds and Outrages for the first LGBTQ Colloquium at Rhodes House. Dr Wolf was a Rhodes Scholar and a Yale graduate. She's written eight nonfiction bestsellers, about women's issues and civil liberties, and is the CEO of DailyClout.io, a news site and legislative database in which actual US state and Federal legislation is shared digitally and read and explained weekly. She holds an honorary doctorate from Sweet Briar College. She and her family live in New York City.    

See Rachel de Thame at BBC Gardeners' World Spring Fair on Sunday 5 May.Rachel de Thame, presenter on BBC2s Gardeners' World, makes her BBC Gardeners' World Events debut in 2024, sharing top tips and advice live on stage.Rachel is a broadcaster, writer and passionate gardener. Trained at The English Gardening School, she has been a regular presenter on BBC2's Gardeners' World since 1999. Rachel is also a long-term member of the team providing coverage of all the major RHS Flower Shows, for which she co-anchored several episodes in 2021. Rachel's other television series' include Small Town Gardens and Gardening with the Experts for the BBC and Countrywise for ITV. A Good Read for BBC Radio 4 and Essential Classics for BBC Radio 3 are among her radio appearancesThe author of three gardening books, Rachel is a gardening columnist for the Sunday Times and The Garden magazine for the RHS. Her writing commissions for other publications, include BBC Gardeners' World Magazine and The Huffington Post.Design projects, range from the LK Bennett Garden at Chelsea Flower Show 2008 and the floral decorations for the Royal Barge, during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant in 2012,to bespoke planting plans for private gardens.Rachel co-curated the RHS London Rose Show in 2016 and has been the key speaker and/or host for talks and events at The Ashmolean Museum, The Garden Museum, Highgrove, Hever Castle, The Charleston Garden Festival and The Royal Geographical Society.Rachel is Vice President of wild flower charity Plantlife, and an Ambassador for The National Garden Scheme. She has also supported Flowers From the Farm – the network for the UK's cut flower growers – since its inception.The mother of four children, Rachel's interests beyond horticulture include the performing and fine arts, history, antiques and crafts of all kinds. She is currently restoring the garden – including walled vegetable, herb and cut flower beds – and interiors at her home in the Cotswolds, where country walks and wildlife spotting are welcome distractions.

fWotD Episode 2487: Benty Grange hanging bowl Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.The featured article for Sunday, 25 February 2024 is Benty Grange hanging bowl.The Benty Grange hanging bowl is a fragmentary Anglo-Saxon artefact from the seventh century AD. All that remains are parts of two escutcheons: bronze frames that are usually circular and elaborately decorated, and that sit along the outside of the rim or at the interior base of a hanging bowl. A third disintegrated soon after excavation, and no longer survives. The escutcheons were found in 1848 by the antiquary Thomas Bateman, while excavating a tumulus at the Benty Grange farm in western Derbyshire, and were presumably buried as part of an entire hanging bowl. The grave had probably been looted by the time of Bateman's excavation, but still contained high-status objects suggestive of a richly furnished burial, including the hanging bowl and the boar-crested Benty Grange helmet.The surviving escutcheons are made of enamelled bronze and are 40 mm (1.6 in) in diameter. They show three dolphin-like creatures arranged in a circle, each biting the tail of the one ahead of it. Their bodies and the background are made of enamel, likely all yellow; the creatures' outlines and eyes are tinned or silvered, as are the borders of the escutcheons. Although three escutcheons from a hanging bowl at Faversham also contain dolphin-like creatures, the Benty Grange design is most closely paralleled by Insular manuscripts, particularly figures in the Durham Gospel Fragment and the Book of Durrow. Surviving illustrations of the third escutcheon show that it was of a different size and style, exhibiting a scroll-like pattern; it parallels the basal disc of a hanging bowl from Winchester, and may too have been originally placed at the bottom of the Benty Grange bowl.What remains of one escutcheon belongs to Museums Sheffield and as of 2023 was in the collection of the Weston Park Museum. The other is held by the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford; as of 2023 it is not on display.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:11 UTC on Sunday, 25 February 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Benty Grange hanging bowl on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Stephen Neural.

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, Founder of Rubber Cheese.Download the Rubber Cheese 2023 Visitor Attraction Website Report - the annual benchmark statistics for the attractions sector.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. Show references: https://carbonsix.digital/https://www.linkedin.com/in/pmarden/Paul Marden is the Founder and Managing Director of Carbon Six Digital and the CEO of Rubber Cheese. He is an Umbraco Certified Master who likes to think outside the box, often coming up with creative technical solutions that clients didn't know were possible. Paul oversees business development and technical delivery, specialising in Microsoft technologies including Umbraco CMS, ASP.NET, C#, WebApi, and SQL Server. He's worked in the industry since 1999 and has vast experience of managing and delivering the technical architecture for both agencies and client side projects of all shapes and sizes. Paul is an advocate for solid project delivery and has a BCS Foundation Certificate in Agile. https://www.rubbercheese.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellymolson/Kelly Molson is the Founder of Rubber Cheese, a user focused web design and development agency for the attraction sector. Digital partners to Eureka! The National Children's Museum, Pensthorpe, National Parks UK, Holkham, Visit Cambridge and The National Marine Aquarium.Kelly regularly delivers workshops and presentations on sector focused topics at national conferences and attraction sector organisations including ASVA, ALVA, The Ticketing Professionals Conference and the Museum + Heritage Show.As host of the popular Skip the Queue Podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions, she speaks with inspiring industry experts who share their knowledge of what really makes an attraction successful.Recent trustee of The Museum of the Broads.  Transcription:  Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip the Queue, a podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host, Kelly Molson. In this new monthly slot, Rubber Cheese CEO Paul Marden joins me to discuss different digital related topics. In this episode, we'll talk about how you can make your site more interactive and the tasks and costs associated with that. You can subscribe on all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue. Kelly Molson: Hello. Back for a fourth time. Paul Marden: Hello. Kelly Molson: What attraction have you visited most recently, and what did you love about it? Paul Marden: Do I go first? I always go first. Kelly Molson: We've got a format now. Don't break the format. I'm comfortable. Paul Marden: I went to the Titanic Museum just recently. We were exhibiting, actually, at the Association of Science and Discovery Centres at their annual conference in Belfast, which was actually at W5 in the Titanic quarter of Belfast. And I could talk loads about W5, which I will do in another session. But the place that I went to that I was most kind of emotionally moved by which I'm a bit of a geek and I'm fairly concrete in terms of my emotional stuff, for me to feel moved. Kelly Molson: Yeah. It's normally me that's got the blubbing. Paul Marden: Yeah. So I was blown away by the experience at the Titanic Museum. I've never been to a museum with so few artefacts, which, of course, is because everything was lost at sea. And so the whole museum is about telling the story through reproductions and immersive experiences, which was all amazing. But then you stumble upon one of the original artefacts as you're wandering around, and there's only a handful of them, but it hit me like a brick wall when I actually came across them. So there's a life jacket. There's only twelve of those left in existence, and they've got one of them at the museum. And you walk into this room, where all of the names of the victims of this tragedy are on this massive wall. And it's a darkened room, but lit in the centre of the room was this one life jacket. Paul Marden: Amazing. And then you walk around and there's a section talking about the root cause of the accident. And there are the keys to the binocular store from the crow's nest, which happened to be in the second officer's pocket. And he had to get off the ship in Southampton and he didn't get back on, and so there were no keys. And so the people that were in the crow's nest couldn't open the box with the binoculars that would have led them to see the iceberg. Kelly Molson: Wow. What a story. That wasn't in the film. Paul Marden: No, it wasn't in the film. So it's really impactful. And then the storytelling was amazing, but completely lost on me. So I was chatting to. I made a new friend, Lucinda Lewis, the CEO of Catalyst Science and Discovery Centre, and we would, like, both say how amazing it was, how impactful it was. And she was like, "Yeah, and the dominoes." And I'm like, "Dominoes? What dominoes?" Paul Marden: And she was like, "Did you not see when you were looking at all of the root causes, they wrote them on these big pillars that were toppling, showing you the domino effect." I was like, "Okay, yeah, that was completely lost on me." Kelly Molson: So lesson for you is you need to pay more attention to the interpretation next time. Paul Marden: Completely clueless to the subtext of what was going on around me. But the story was amazing. Kelly Molson: Story is really cool. Yeah. I have never heard that before. That's really impressive. I think that picture that you painted of all the names with the one kind of life jacket in the middle of it is so powerful. I can see it in my head, but I've never seen it. Paul Marden: That was only one of a dozen kind of really powerful memories that I've got of being just blown away by their storytelling and how they communicated what happened. It was just an amazing place. Kelly Molson: Nice. I've got it. I missed that I couldn't make it to the conference this year because I was elsewhere. Paul Marden: Absolutely. What have you been doing recently? Where have you been? Kelly Molson: So this is a very recent one, literally last week, last Thursday, I was very kindly invited to go and visit the Ashmolean Museum, which is a free to enter museum. But what I really liked is they have a very large donations area as you first walk in and you've got card donations. Beep. So easy. I never have cash, so that was a big thumbs up for me. The museum is brilliant. I mean, it has some brilliant exhibitions in it that are there. They're always there. But I was really keen to go and see their colour revolution exhibition, which is all around Victorian art, fashion and design. Some of you might not know this about me, but I was a graphic designer in the past, actually. Probably. Actually, loads of you people know about that. Loads. Kelly Molson: I was a graphic designer once upon a time and I was a packaging designer and just design and colour. And also I've got a real passion for kind of interior design as well. So all of these things just, I have a big love of. So this exhibition for me was like, "This is the one. This is a big tick." What I found really fascinating is that Victorian Britain has this kind of connotation of being really dull and dreary, and the exhibition was kind of exploring that. It's absolutely incorrect, but they start with Queen Victoria's morning dress, which is a really powerful image. So after Prince Albert's sudden death, she plunged into a very deep grief. And she actually wore. I didn't know this. She wore black for the remaining 40 years of her life. I had no idea that she. Kelly Molson: I mean, I knew she mourned for a really long time. I had no idea she never wore another colour again. So she's obviously such an iconic image, an iconic person of that era, that image probably sticks with you, which is why it adds to that illusion of Victorian's love in the dark completely. But they didn't they really love colour.  And they love to experiment with it. And they have a big thing about insects and animals and bringing that into the colours that they wore. And the jewellery, like, some of the jewellery, like this beetle necklace, was just incredible. And there is a lot of. I know that they have a lot of that in their kind of fabrics and their kind of artwork from that time as well. But what I really loved is really small artefact in the museum that I totally loved. So it was a very early colour chart, like a paint sample colour chart. So this is quite current for me at the minute. Kelly Molson: My office is full of furnishings because we're renovating a cottage in Norfolk and it's not ready, but I've had to order all the things for it or find them off Facebook Marketplace and eBay and charity shops and vintage places and my office. So colour chart and all of that kind of stuff is, like, right up here at the moment. But anyway, there was an 1814 Scottish artist called Patrick Syme, and he tried to solve the problem of how to describe colour by giving each one of them a name. But he draw nature to do this. So you have, like, mole's breath now from Barrow and ball and lighting green and those kind of stuff. Well, this is where this started in the Victorian age, so it's absolutely beautiful. I posted it on my LinkedIn. Kelly Molson: But this colour chart is just gorgeous and it gives a number for each colour. So number 54. Its name was Duck green. The animal that it was named after is the neck of Mallard. I actually thought the colour was neck of Mallard, which I was like, that's absolutely brilliant. The vegetable that it was similar to is the upper disc of yew leaves, and the mineral is. I don't know if I'm going to pronounce this Ceylanite and I Googled it isn't green. I had no idea what ceylanite is, but it's not green. Paul Marden: Yeah, I'd struggle to identify a yew tree, let alone the upper disc green of a yew tree's leaf. Kelly Molson: Well, there you go. Honestly, I loved it. I loved every minute of it. It was really interesting. And that for me was like, I know it's a really small artefact, but it was the standout one for me because it just connected with some of it is so current for me at the moment. It was £15 pounds to go and see this exhibition and that is money well spent. It's open now until the 18th of Feb 2024. So totally get yourselves along to visit that. And also their restaurant and food is top notch. Paul Marden: Was it good? Was it really okay? Kelly Molson: We'll talk about that another time. Paul Marden: We've done a few of the Oxford Uni museums, but we've not done the Ashmolean yet, so that needs to be on my list of places to go. Kelly Molson: Yeah, definitely worth a little visit. Okay. Right. We're going to talk about interactivity today. Making your website more interactive can improve engagement which is more likely to improve your conversion rate. But very few attractions have interactive elements, which is quite surprising, actually. So we're going to talk about how you can make your site a bit more interactive and immersive. So one, the stat from the survey is that, 53% of visitor attractions survey don't have any interactive elements on their websites. Kelly Molson: So that's like. I'm quite surprised about that because during the pandemic, went all in on interactivity. We had to. It was the only way that you could kind of get people to your site and get people engaged in what you were doing. And we're talking about things like virtual tours, interactive maps, or even just integrating video and audio on your site is a way of making it interactive as well. So, yeah, I was quite surprised that it was so low, actually. Paul Marden: Yeah, it surprised me as well, because a lot of the people that we talk to want that kind of interactive content added into their sites. Kelly Molson: Do you think. And I'm not trying to make us idiots here again, because we did enough of that on the last episode, but do you think that people understand that video and audio is an interactive element? Paul Marden: That's a good point. Kelly Molson: Or is our expectation of it to be more. Because audio and video, do we see that as a standard thing now? We don't see that as a special element. Paul Marden: That could be absolutely true. And we talked a lot about things that we could do to improve the survey for next time. There's a real risk, isn't there? Because you could ask a lot more very detailed questions. Do you have a virtual tour? Do you have an interactive map? Do you have video and audio on your site? And now, all of a sudden, we've gone from one question to three questions, and we're asking too much of everybody when they fill stuff in, so you end up having to have broader questions, but those broader questions themselves become a little ambiguous. So maybe there's an element of. It could be that there's a bunch of people in that 53% of people that don't have interactivity, that may have stuff that is video or audio that we would consider to be interactive, but they don't. Kelly Molson: Do you think as well, that because life has gone back to relative normality for the majority of us, that we just are not engaging with those things as much, or they just not seem to be as relevant anymore? Paul Marden: Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? We talk about audience personas and trying to personalise the site to give people exactly the content that's relevant to them. Who is the target audience for the virtual tour? Is the target audience for a virtual tour the people that are going to come visit? Is it a way of enticing people to come and physically come on site? Is it a way of extending the reach of the attraction, or let's say it's a cultural or museum kind of setting? Is it a way for them to extend the reach of their collection to people that can't come. Understanding what the interactivity is there for and how it enables the audience to achieve the goal that they're trying to achieve. And for the clients, the attraction themselves, to be able to achieve what their goal is for that audience group is interesting. Paul Marden: Interactivity for its own sake doesn't help anyone if you're not really thought about why you're putting it there. Kelly Molson: Yeah, I was just trying to think. I've got a really good case study of this and I've forgotten the name of the place. I want to talk about it, but I've forgotten the name of it, so I'll give you an explanation of it instead. Years ago, so. Oh, God, I think this is. In 2015, Lee and I went to Australia on holiday. Lee actually asked me to marry him in Australia at Ayers Rock. It was very romantic. Paul Marden: Oh, wow. Kelly Molson: But one of the best, I should say that was the best trip, obviously, that was the best trip, but one of the other best trips that went on while were there. When were in Melbourne, I've gone to the island and I've forgotten the name of the island. It's come off totally out of my head. But went to see the little penguins, so the penguin parade that comes in. These penguins come in to shore every night and you can go and watch them come in. It's like an army of miniature penguins. And it genuinely is the most magical thing I've ever seen in my whole life. And you can't take photos because it hurts their eyes. So you're immersing yourself into this experience and it's all up here in my head. Kelly Molson: Well, during the pandemic, they started live broadcasting it on Facebook and I was like, "Shut up. This is amazing." Because it's an expensive trip back to Australia, but I'd love to do that again. I would absolutely 100% go back and do that again.  But this was like a magical opportunity to see it in my home office and watch it as well. So those kind of opportunities, I think, are pretty magical. Paul Marden: You reminded me of in the middle of lockdown, I was obsessed by watching the webcam at Monterey Bay Aquarium. Kelly Molson: I just got something else that got obsessed about a few weeks ago, which is I watched the webcam Sandringham have got. No, is it Sandringham or Balmoral? One of them have got a webcam with the Red Squirrels. I think it's Balmoral. And I got absolutely, totally obsessed with it. Had it on in the corner of the screen just while I was working, just going, "Is it there yet? Is it back yet? Red squirrel. Red squirrel."Paul Marden: I think it might be. The two of us were looking at penguins and sea otters during the height of the pandemic when were desperate to travel. Now, watching Red squirrels on a webcam might be, might not have the same justification for the rest of your day's life. Kelly Molson: It's really cool. It's really cool. You don't get to see red squirrels very often. Paul Marden: No, you don't. Kelly Molson: Anyway, apologies went off on a total tangent, but you can see, look, we've got really animated about this, so you can totally see the value of having those kind of experiences on your website and being to engage with different audiences. Paul Marden: Should we do a stat? Should we talk about some numbers?Kelly Molson: Yeah, what's the benefits? Paul Marden: Yeah. So HubSpot again. We talk about HubSpot data all the time. But HubSpot found that interactive content like quizzes, assessments and polls can increase time spent on a website by 80%. That one's lifted straight out of the survey that we put into there. But there's some more. The Content Marketing Institute shows that 81% of marketers agreed that interactive content grabbed more attention than static content. But that chimes with the data that we gathered from people, doesn't it? Because a lot of people do think that this is important stuff. Maybe not quite to the same level that the Content Marketing Institute found, but obviously people in the results set from our survey thought that this was important. Kelly Molson: Yeah. And I think it depends on what that interactive content is. So, interestingly, when we did the live webinar for the report, we had someone on the webinar mention that they were a bit worried about distraction. So we talk a lot about focusing people's attention on the job in hand, which is ultimately showcase what your attraction does, get them to buy a ticket. And this person said, are we distracting them from those journeys by doing that? But I don't know if it's part of the purchase journey. I think it might be post purchase. It feels for me like post purchase, getting them to come back and engage in your site, repeat visit stuff, just those things around quizzes and assessment and polls and stuff like that. And also this example that I just gave about the little penguins. Kelly Molson: I absolutely will go back to that place one day and being able to engage with it keeps it front and centre of my mind to go. When we go back to Australia, I'm going to take my kid to see that because she will love it. I'll make sure she loves it. And I don't know if it's part of the first point of engagement. I think it's post purchase engagement. Paul Marden: That's interesting. Yeah. What the problems say? Kelly Molson: Anyway, problems? Sustainability. Paul Marden: Yeah. Shall I share a bugbear of mine that I share regularly in meetings all the time. But a lot of interactive content, especially the stuff that uses video, can be inherently unsustainable. Video uses bandwidth. And a lot of people don't think of the impact that websites can have on CO2 emissions. Yeah, it's a link that I don't think many people make. I certainly didn't until there's been a lot of talk around in our industry about this in the last couple of years and it's really opened my eyes up. It's easy to understand if you work for an airline, you can see the CO2 emissions coming out the back of the plane, but if you build websites, you don't see it necessarily, but video consumes bandwidth and bandwidth takes all of these things, the compute power to produce the video and publish it out onto the Internet. Paul Marden: And then to shift all of that data across the Internet ultimately uses energy, and that energy comes at the cost of producing CO2. So one of the obvious ways, if we're just talking about video itself, because video is one kind of more interactive element, avoiding autoplaying videos, which is my absolute bugbear when you land on a home page of a website. And the video autoplays that for me, now that my eyes have been opened to the impact of it, I only used to see the conversion rate benefit, but now the cost associated with that is clear in my mind. And I think if we can avoid doing that and find other ways to increase conversion, I think that's really important. But also doing things to make sure that we understand what the sustainability impact of the web pages that we produce. Paul Marden: So as we make our web pages more complex, they will produce more CO2 as a result of doing that. And I think as people become more aware of this, the world is going to change. At the moment, the people that buy from us, this is not something that is front and centre of their minds in the buying process, I think, at the moment. And there's a lot of power in the hands of the marketers and the procurement people to make it so that technical people like us that build things are required to take that sustainability perspective into account when we're building things and making sure that we build things sustainably. Kelly Molson: And then there's accessibility. So interactive elements can be really great for people that can't visit your site, for one example. However, the digital aspect of that means that you could intentionally put something on your site which actually is less accessible for people who have visual impairments or hearing impairments, for example. Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. If you've got video with audio, have you got subtitles? If you've got video, do you have audio descriptions that describe what the video is showing? If you've got an interactive map, how would you provide a more accessible way of being able to see the interactive map? If you've got a 3D, interactive, immersive virtual tour, how will you interact with that? If you can't see it, to interact with it, those are all things that people need to be thinking about. And many of the institutions that we work with will have a statutory obligation to think about it as well. It's not just a nice to have, it's a statutory obligation to do it as well. Kelly Molson: Yeah, for sure. Okay, so who's doing it well? I think we should just caveat this one by saying that our report and a survey and subsequent report are all anonymous. Kelly Molson: If we ever share anyone's information, that is, in relation to the report data. We have asked for their express permission. Prior to this. Prior to sharing. In this instant, we've just gone out and found some stuff on people's websites and gone, “We really like this. This is really cool.” So we're not talking about these institutions in relation to survey data? Paul Marden: No, absolutely. Should we talk about. The first one in our list was Mary Rose Trust. And the Mary Rose Museum has got an amazing array of interactive artefacts that they've listed off the bottom of the seabed and made it available on the website so you can come.  Kelly Molson: With your mouse, you can turn it around. Not with your hand.Paul Marden: Not yet. The technology isn't quite there yet, but, yeah, you can interact with those artefacts and I think that's pretty amazing for an organisation like them, to be able to share those, because they've got an amazing collection of Tudor artefacts and to be able to share those with the outside world is really impressive. Yeah. Kelly Molson: So that's like a simple technology where you can kind of 3D model the artefact and you can spin it around and you can click on elements of it that will tell you a little bit about this part of it or where it was found or the condition of it, et cetera. So that is super cool. What was the other one on this list that you were like, “This is great.”Paul Marden: I really loved the Museum of London's Victorian Walk. It's a 3D tour affair and obviously they've scanned, taken photos and composed this together into this really cool 3D tour system that you can just move around and experience what life is like on a Victorian walk. I was blown away by, you were talking about the colour of Victorian England. Yeah, it was a really colourful experience. So in my mind, it was a bit like going into diagonally in Hogwarts in the Harry Potter world. It felt that kind of side street of London kind of thing. But you really got into it. It was very cool. Kelly Molson: Oh, that's one for me. So I should go and do that and do a little comparison of how colourful it was based on my Ashmolean experience. Paul Marden: Absolutely. Kelly Molson: Okay, next steps that someone can take if they're thinking about stuff like this. So assess what you can do really quickly and easily. So what do we already have? Paul Marden: Yeah, a lot of people are already going to have stuff, aren't they? So what video have they got? What audio have they got? Were they like Mary Rose and had a bunch of 3D scans of their artefacts that then you can stick into a tool and put onto your website. Obviously, if you've got a large collection and you want to 3D scan everything and put it onto your website, that's not a trivial undertaking, is it? But if you've already got the 3D scans of stuff and you need to then make it available on the website, then the step might be relatively much simpler than scanning your whole collection. Kelly Molson: Yeah. So have a look through your video, your audio, your 3D elements. What do you already have, what can you make more of? And then what can you easily add to your current site? Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. A lot of websites can add video and audio just straight out of the box. I'm going to get a bit geeky and talk about iframes, but essentially an iframe is a little cut out area of your website that you can post a little bit of content into that a lot of different interactive tools on the web will enable you to do so. The 3D models. There's a tool that you can create 3D models of the world in that we've used on a number of different projects. And then you just embed it as an iframe, which is essentially take a URL of your 3D scan and you pop it into your website and it comes out and works on the page as is. It's pretty awesome. And takes so little effort for your developers to be able to add it to the site. Kelly Molson: Cool. And then think about what you could commission or think about some of the things that you could potentially look at as a larger piece of project work. Paul Marden: Yeah, I mean, there's a brainstorming exercise, there, isn't there, of trying to get lots of people together and come up with creative ideas and think about what you can do. Some of the other stuff that we've talked about. Easy. Doesn't take a lot of effort. You've got the assets already or it's relatively easy to add them to your site. But what else could you do? That takes a lot of effort and planning. Kelly Molson: Ask your visitors. Ask people what more they'd like to see. Paul Marden: Yeah. Figuring out what your audience wants and how do you get them to that is step number one, isn't it? Kelly Molson: Okay, and then what kind of budget are we looking at for some of these things? Paul Marden: How long is a piece of string kind of question? This one isn't. It's really hard adding interactive maps onto your site that are fully accessible and easy to use. I guess you're looking at a few thousand pounds to be able to do that, potentially less depends on what you want to put into your interactive map, video and audio. If your website already supports it and you got a whole library of this stuff that you want to share with the outside world, it could cost you nothing but the time it takes you to add it to the site. And then you get into some of the more complex elements like the you can imagine that creating a 3D kind of immersive virtual walkthrough, that's not a trivial job. Paul Marden: If you want to go and photograph an entire exhibit, walk around the whole floor plan of your museum and create an amazing virtual tour. That's going to take some effort, both in terms of getting the right people to turn up with the right kit to be able to do that photography, and then in terms of the technology that's needed to turn that into a virtual tour, and then the effort to embed that into the website itself could be amazing. Probably not a cheap exercise.Kelly Molson: No, substantial investment, and just need to make sure that you're doing it for the right reasons and for the right audience as well. Also podcast if you are thinking about doing a podcast for your museum or your attraction, which I think is a genius idea, give us a shout and we'd be happy to share some of our kind of top tips. Kelly Molson: I think we did an episode on it back in the day with Paul Griffith from Painshill Park, who actually, he interviewed me on this podcast and we talked about some of the reasons that we did it, how we set it up, and some of the kind of costumes around that as well. So it's worth having a little bit through, dig through the archive, but if you got any questions on that then yeah, give us a shout. Good chat again today. I enjoyed this. Paul Marden: Been good, hasn't it? Kelly Molson: Yeah. I'll see you next time. Paul Marden: Thank you. Cheers, mate. Bye. Kelly Molson: Bye bye. Kelly Molson:  Thanks for listening to Skip The Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip the queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast. The 2023 Visitor Attraction Website Report is now LIVE! Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsDownload the report now for invaluable insights and actionable recommendations!

If you've enjoyed delving into museums with our celebrity guests on Meet Me at the Museum, then our new spin-off show, Meet You at the Museum, should be right up your street, as we get the lowdown from museum visitors themselves. Join host JP Devlin as he explores the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and hears fascinating first-hand stories from visitors about the important and surprising role the museum plays in their lives, as a space of solace, inspiration and learning.National Art Pass gives you great discounts at hundreds of museums, galleries and historic houses across the UK, while at the same time raising money to support them.https://www.artfund.org/national-art-pass Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In June, the pope invited dozens of artists to Rome for the 50th anniversary of the Vatican Museum's contemporary art collection. Patricia Lockwood, the author of Priestdaddy and a contributing editor at the LRB, was one of them. She tells Tom more about the surreal experience and why irony, in the words of Pope Francis, is ‘a marvellous virtue'.Find further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/popepodRead John Lanchester's pick from the archive: lrb.me/lanchesterpickSubscribe to the LRB here: lrb.me/nowFind out about the Colour Revolution exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum here:https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/colour-revolution-victorian-art-fashion-design Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

George Orwell wasn't afraid to speak against totalitarianism – but what was he for? Colin Burrow joins Tom to unpick the cultural conservatism and crackling violence underpinning Orwell's writing, to reassess his vision of socialism and to figure out why teenagers love him so much.If you want to join Colin Burrow and Clare Bucknell for their series on satire next year, and receive all the books under discussion, access to online seminars and the rest of the Close Readings audio, you can sign up to Close Readings Plus here: https://lrb.me/plusOr just sign up to the Close Readings podcast subscription:In Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/orwellappleIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/orwellscFind further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/orwellpodFind out about the Colour Revolution exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum here:https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/colour-revolution-victorian-art-fashion-design Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the 1970s and '80s, thousands of haemophiliacs in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through blood products known to be contaminated. In a recent piece, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithewaite outlines the magnitude of the scandal, exacerbated by carelessness, corporate greed and, in one instance, deliberate human experimentation. She joins Malin to discuss the findings and what they mean for survivors. They are joined by Tom Crewe, who reckoned with the Aids crisis in his 2018 article ‘Here was a plague'.Find Florence and Tom's articles on the episode page: lrb.me/bloodinquirypodRead Colm Tóibín's pick from the LRB archive: lrb.me/colmpodSubscribe to the LRB here: lrb.me/nowFind out about the Colour Revolution exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum here:https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/colour-revolution-victorian-art-fashion-design Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of fraud last week, the only surprise was how quickly the jury reached their verdict. John Lanchester joins Tom to discuss how the former cypto billionaire ended up facing a life sentence, from his early career in finance and embrace of Effective Altruism to the simple but audacious nature of his crime, and why he found himself in a US court, even though US citizens were banned from using his trading company, FTX.Read John Lanchester on Sam Bankman-Fried: lrb.me/sbfpodRead Rosemary Hill's pick from the LRB archive: lrb.me/rosemarypodSubscribe to the LRB here: lrb.me/nowFind out about the Colour Revolution exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum here:https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/colour-revolution-victorian-art-fashion-design Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

19th century Britain is often imagined as gloomy and dark, epitomised by Dickensian grime and Queen Victoria's prolonged state of black-clad mourning. But in reality this period saw an explosion of colour, following a number of scientific discoveries.In this short discussion, Charlotte Ribeyrol, co-curator of Colour Revolution, a major new exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, talks about some of those technical advances and the dazzling objects visitors will find on display at the show, from jewel-like Pre-Raphaelite paintings to bookcases and socks, as well as some of the debates of the time – between Ruskin, Darwin and others – about the meaning of colour in nature and society.Colour Revolution runs at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford until 18th February 2024. Find out more here:https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/colour-revolution-victorian-art-fashion-design Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Man-made gems are the subject of research being undertaken by jeweller Sofie Boons. She joins presenter Nandini Das alongside Matthew Winterbottom, the curator of an exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford which explores the explosion of colour in design, textiles, paintings and jewellery in the Victorian period. Dinah Roe has been looking at the the way colour infuses the pages of Victorian literature and in 1773, Birmingham Assay Office was founded to provide testing and hallmarking of precious metal items - Chris Corker from the University of York has been researching that history. Colour Revolution at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford runs until 18 Feb 2024 and Matthew Winterbottom is its co-curator and Assistant Keeper, Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Ashmolean. You can find out more about "the alchemical jeweller" at https://sofieboons.com/ Dr Chris Corker lectures at the School for Business and Society at the University of York and you can hear more about his research in a previous episode of Free Thinking called Tin cans, cutlery and sewing https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jcr0 Dinah Roe is Reader in Nineteenth Century Literature at Oxford Brookes University. You can hear her discussing the writing and artwork of the Rosetti family which was displayed in an exhibition at Tate Britain in a previous episode of Free Thinking. Nandini Das is a historian and New Generation Thinker based at the University of Oxford. She is the author of a book called Courting India and has presented Essays and Sunday Features for BBC Radio 3 including Rainsong in Five Senses and A Jig Into History about a bet undertaken by Shakespeare's former clown Will Kemp https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001j4rz

Unless you're very lucky, the path to happiness in life is usually a little squiggly. Ok, let's get real! Sometimes the path can be as winding and bendy as Mr Tickle's arms, can't it? And if you're in a job that doesn't light you up, it can feel like you're stuck in quicksand. If you can relate, you'll love Louise Bailey's story. As a student in one of our first cohorts, Louise is a TechPixie OG and proof that doing the work works. Because after cutting her teeth working with Joy on a client's social media account and getting some incredible experience under her belt with the marketing team at Waddesdon Manor, she's now working in her dream role as a digital communications officer at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It couldn't be more perfect for this self-confessed history geek. So how did she get there? Here's why you should tune inDiscover the journey that led Louise to land her dream job and how she overcame her limiting beliefs about whether she could do the role (with a little nudge from Joy). You'll love the side note on Adam Koszary and his viral Absolute Unit post. Plus, hear how the Ashmolean Museum gave student animators the opportunity to put their own spin on pieces from the collection. Here's what to listen out for:[03:27] Louise realises she's meant for more.[05:02] Feeling like a square peg in a round hole.[08:05] Louise's light-bulb moment about her career.[13:02] Louise lands her dream job.[14:25] The ANTs come marching in. [17:16] The impact of the man behind the ‘absolute unit' meme.[19:29] How to be creative in the heritage space.[21:21] Why you should never dismiss your dreams.  If you want to follow in Louise's footsteps and pursue your dream job, press play now. ▶️▶️▶️ Love our podcast? Leave a review and get hold of our Quick Start Podcast Guide.For details of links and resources mentioned  in this episode, please visit TechPixies.comWant to get in touch? We'd love to hear from you.Follow us on social media @techpixies and ping us a DM or drop us a line at support@techpixies.com Thanks for listening!

An artefact in the Ashmolean Museum leads the Doctor and Bess to the ancient Egyptian port of Tamiat in the 12th century BC. The locals are raised with a healthy respect for the sea – for the wonders it can offer and the risks it can bring. But recently, more ships are going missing than usual, leaving no survivors. A new predator is lurking in the waves, attacking anything that crosses its path. As Bess helps the young and impulsive Rabiah provide for her family, going on a perilous fishing trip that will take them to a mysterious island, the Doctor befriends concerned merchant Beku and annoys the wealthy Minhotep while trying to defend Tamiat against another menace: the Sea People, marauding pirates intent on stealing anything of value and destroying what's left. Surrounded by danger, the Doctor and Bess face overwhelming odds to protect not only the people of Tamiat from a deadly human threat but also the entire world from an alien species capable of dominating Earth's food chain. The only hope lies in a desperate and treacherous act that could cost the Doctor his life.

he Doctor Who Audio Dramas - Episode 206.4 An artefact in the Ashmolean Museum leads the Doctor and Bess to the ancient Egyptian port of Tamiat in the 12th century BC. The locals are raised with a healthy respect for the sea – for the wonders it can offer and the risks it can bring. But recently, more ships are going missing than usual, leaving no survivors. A new predator is lurking in the waves, attacking anything that crosses its path. As Bess helps the young and impulsive Rabiah provide for her family, going on a perilous fishing trip that will take them to a mysterious island, the Doctor befriends concerned merchant Beku and annoys the wealthy Minhotep while trying to defend Tamiat against another menace: the Sea People, marauding pirates intent on stealing anything of value and destroying what's left. Surrounded by danger, the Doctor and Bess face overwhelming odds to protect not only the people of Tamiat from a deadly human threat but also the entire world from an alien species capable of dominating Earth's food chain. The only hope lies in a desperate and treacherous act that could cost the Doctor his life. www.dwad.net https://www.facebook.com/doctorwhoaudiodramas

Where in your own scholarship do you think you insert yourself--your personality, your religious beliefs, your ethics, your political beliefs, your worldview--most? And how do you, as a scholar, try to avoid falling prey to that common fate? Is there an early form of Christianity that, had it somehow won out over what became mainstream Catholic (and then eventually also Protestant) Christianity, you think would have better served humanity through the millennia? If so, how and why? Do you think the doubting Thomas passage in John was meant to be a polemic against the gospel of Thomas which seems to have been authored and gaining traction at the same time? Be fruitful and multiply AND Replenish the earth are two separate commands, not one joined together with a comma. In other words, God didn't command Adam and Eve to replenish the human population. Are we to assume that some unknown author in the first century/early second century put together the so-called Q sayings? And for what purpose? Did the author ascribe the sayings to some fellow named Jesus prior to the fleshing out of the Jesus character in the gospels? Is the Q theory wholly dependent on an assumption of a historical Jesus? A recent Facebook posting from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, showed a picture from their collection and gift shop book of a message written out on a potshard. This message, written in Aramaic from the 5th Century BCE includes the sentence "Let me know when you will be celebrating Pascha (Passover).” Doesn't that imply it was a “moveable feast” reflecting agriculture rather than commemorating a historical occasion, the exodus? In the Parable of the Two Sons in Matthew, it reads: “But what do you think about this? A man with two sons told the older boy, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.' The son answered, ‘No, I won't go,' but later he changed his mind and went anyway. Then the father told the other son, ‘You go,' and he said, ‘Yes, sir, I will.' But he didn't go. “Which of the two obeyed his father?” They replied, “The first.” The footnote reads: "Other manuscripts read “The second.” In still other manuscripts the first son says “Yes” but does nothing, the second son says “No” but then repents and goes, and the answer to Jesus' question is that the second son obeyed his father." What do you think is the origin and reason behind the contradicting manuscripts of this parable? What do you think is the intended meaning? I still find intriguing is Saul's

The Doctor Who Audio Dramas - Episode 206.3 An artefact in the Ashmolean Museum leads the Doctor and Bess to the ancient Egyptian port of Tamiat in the 12th century BC. The locals are raised with a healthy respect for the sea – for the wonders it can offer and the risks it can bring. But recently, more ships are going missing than usual, leaving no survivors. A new predator is lurking in the waves, attacking anything that crosses its path. As Bess helps the young and impulsive Rabiah provide for her family, going on a perilous fishing trip that will take them to a mysterious island, the Doctor befriends concerned merchant Beku and annoys the wealthy Minhotep while trying to defend Tamiat against another menace: the Sea People, marauding pirates intent on stealing anything of value and destroying what's left. Surrounded by danger, the Doctor and Bess face overwhelming odds to protect not only the people of Tamiat from a deadly human threat but also the entire world from an alien species capable of dominating Earth's food chain. The only hope lies in a desperate and treacherous act that could cost the Doctor his life. www.dwad.net https://www.facebook.com/doctorwhoaudiodramas  

An artefact in the Ashmolean Museum leads the Doctor and Bess to the ancient Egyptian port of Tamiat in the 12th century BC. The locals are raised with a healthy respect for the sea – for the wonders it can offer and the risks it can bring. But recently, more ships are going missing than usual, leaving no survivors. A new predator is lurking in the waves, attacking anything that crosses its path. As Bess helps the young and impulsive Rabiah provide for her family, going on a perilous fishing trip that will take them to a mysterious island, the Doctor befriends concerned merchant Beku and annoys the wealthy Minhotep while trying to defend Tamiat against another menace: the Sea People, marauding pirates intent on stealing anything of value and destroying what's left. Surrounded by danger, the Doctor and Bess face overwhelming odds to protect not only the people of Tamiat from a deadly human threat but also the entire world from an alien species capable of dominating Earth's food chain. The only hope lies in a desperate and treacherous act that could cost the Doctor his life. www.dwad.net https://www.facebook.com/doctorwhoaudiodramas

An artefact in the Ashmolean Museum leads the Doctor and Bess to the ancient Egyptian port of Tamiat in the 12th century BC. The locals are raised with a healthy respect for the sea – for the wonders it can offer and the risks it can bring. But recently, more ships are going missing than usual, leaving no survivors. A new predator is lurking in the waves, attacking anything that crosses its path. As Bess helps the young and impulsive Rabiah provide for her family, going on a perilous fishing trip that will take them to a mysterious island, the Doctor befriends concerned merchant Beku and annoys the wealthy Minhotep while trying to defend Tamiat against another menace: the Sea People, marauding pirates intent on stealing anything of value and destroying what's left. Surrounded by danger, the Doctor and Bess face overwhelming odds to protect not only the people of Tamiat from a deadly human threat but also the entire world from an alien species capable of dominating Earth's food chain. The only hope lies in a desperate and treacherous act that could cost the Doctor his life.

In the 6th century BCE, coins were first minted in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Despite over 2500 years of human history, coins have continued to be a part of everyday life. Why were they invented? Why were they so successful? And what role has coinage played in the development of human history? In this episode, Alice Hazell, a Classical Archaeology and Ancient History student at Lady Margaret Hall speaks to Dr. Volker Heuchert, research lecturer in Greek coinage and the curator of Greek and Roman provincial coins at the Ashmolean Museum, to learn about the invention of coins and its impact on the world.

A new exhibition at the Ashmolean looks at the digs conducted by Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos in Crete. At the National Theatre Janet McTeer stars as the Cretan princess Phaedra in a new play by Simon Stone. Classicist Natalie Haynes, curator Andrew Shapland and Minoan archaeologist Nicoletta Momigliano join Rana Mitter to explore what the artefacts found at Knossos can tell us about the world of the Minoans and to delve into the powerful myths these Bronze Age Cretans left us. Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth and Reality runs at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford from 10 Feb 2023 to 30 July 2023 Phaedra a new play by Simon Stone after Euripides, Seneca and Racine runs from 1 February to 8 April at the National Theatre in London Natalie Haynes is the author of books including Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths A production of Medea starring Sophie Okenedo and Ben Daniels runs at the Soho Theatre in London from Feb to 22nd April A debut novel called Phaedra by Laura Shepperton puts the stories of Medea and Phaedra together. Producer: Torquil MacLeod Radio 3's Words and Music has an episode inspired by The Aeniad broadcasting on Sunday February 26th at 17.30 and available on BBC Sounds for the following month You can find more conversations about the Classics in the Free Thinking archives including a discussion with Bettany Hughes, Paul Cartledge and Colm Toibin recorded at Hay 2017: Women's Voices in the Classical World

If there was one thing you think society should talk more about, what would it be?“Something that I am passionate about because we get it so wrong is; How we value and remunerate our work?”_________If you've been lucky enough to travel to Uluru and see the breathtaking light installation at the base of the monolith you'll be excited to meet my guest today! The ‘Field of Light' as that art installation is known, was a project that initially was only going to showcase for a few short months but has become so popular that it's been extended time & again. It truly is a breathtaking sight. The Field of Light is the brainchild and magical work of British artist Bruce Munro who is very well-known for producing large immersive light-based installations in many locations around the world. These dynamic exhibitions are made up of thousands of components and incredible logistic feats in their own right - let alone being so beautiful and bringing so much joy to all those that see them. Bruce is an artistic diarist, who has spent over 30 years collecting and recording ideas and images in his sketchbooks, which he returns to over time as source material. Language, literature, science, and music have also greatly influenced his work. Frequently, Bruce's subject matter is his own experience of fleeting moments of rapport with the world and existence in its largest sense of being part of life's essential pattern. His reoccurring motif is the use of light on an environmental scale in order to create an emotional response for the viewer. Bruce completed a B.A. in Fine Arts at Bristol in 1982. Shortly after he moved to Sydney where he worked in design and lighting, inspired by Australia's natural light and landscape. Returning to England in 1992 he settled in Wiltshire, but his love for Australia was never lost and it was fitting when he finally got to realise his dream to light up the Central desert in such a magical way. Bruce's work has been shown at Museums and Botanical Gardens internationally, notably, Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania, The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Waddesdon Manor for the Rothschild Collection, Buckinghamshire; Beyond Limits 2016 for Sothebys at Chatsworth House; Messums, Wiltshire and the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne. His work Field of Light continues to be exhibited at Uluru, NT, Australia, Sensorio, California, USA and at the LBJ Wildflower Centre in Austin, TX, USA. Bruce's work is held in private and public museum collections internationally including Cheekwood Garden and Art Museum, TN, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Texas Tech University TX.Whilst he's a global superstar in this world as his work has been featured at Museums and Botanical Gardens internationally, it was Bruce's down to earth manner and sheer love of creativity and the process that I remembered fondly the first time I met him all those years ago. I'm so happy to be sitting down with him once again. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did - Bruce is such a wonderful being and brings such joy to the world.For more information about Bruce, check out these places;-Website: www.brucemunro.co.uk Instagram: @brucemunrostudioFacebook: @brucemunrostudioHead to michellejcox.com for more information about the ONE QUESTION podcast, your host or today's guestsConnect with Michelle on Linkedin here:- @MichelleJCoxConnect with Michelle on Instagram here:- @michellejcoxConnect with Michelle on Facebook here - @michellejcoxAND, if you have a burning topic you'd love people to talk more about, or know someone who'd be great to come on the One Question podcast, please get in touch;- hello@michellejcox.com

What you'll learn in this episode:   How Beatriz discovered and catalogued the 2,600 rings in the Alice and Louis Koch Ring Collection at the Swiss National Museum How Covid lockdown changed how people wear jewelry Beatriz's tricks for making a jewelry exhibit more engaging What it's like to work with jewels uncovered from shipwrecks How global trade has influenced how jewelry is designed and made   About Beatriz Chadour-Sampson   Beatriz Chadour-Sampson studied art history, classical archaeology and Italian philology at the University of East Anglia, and at the University of Münster, Germany. Her doctoral thesis was on the Italian Renaissance goldsmith Antonio Gentili da Faenza. In 1985 she published the jewelry collection of the Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Cologne. Since 1988 she has worked freelance as a jewelry historian, curator of exhibitions and academic writer in Britain. Her numerous publications on jewelry, ranging from antiquity to the present day, include the The Gold Treasure from the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción (1991), and 2000 Finger Rings from the Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Switzerland (1994). She was the consultant curator in the re-designing of the William and Judith Bollinger Jewelry Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum (opened in 2008), London and was guest curator of the ‘Pearl' exhibition (2013-14). She is an Associate Member of the Goldsmiths' Company, London. Today Beatriz Chadour-Sampson works as a freelance international and jewelry historian and scholarly author. Her extensive publications range from Antiquity to the present day.    Additional Resources: Instagram Museum Jewellery Curators - Goldsmiths' Fair Photos available on TheJeweleryJourney.com Transcript:   Working in jewelry sometimes means being a detective. As a freelance jewelry historian and curator of the Alice and Louis Koch Ring Collection at the Swiss National Museum, Beatriz Chadour-Sampson draws on her wealth of knowledge to find jewelry clues—even when a piece has no hallmark or known designer. She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how she creates jewelry exhibits that engage viewers; how she found her way into the niche of shipwreck jewelry; and what it was like to catalogue 2,600 rings. Read the episode transcript here.  Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. If you haven't heard part one, please head to TheJewelryJourney.com. My guest is Beatriz Chadour-Sampson. She's been the curator of the Alice and Louis Koch Ring Collection at the Swiss National Museum for almost 35 years. Welcome back.   Beatriz: You asked about the catalogue. We didn't know if the exhibition was going ahead at one point, but I was asked by V&A Publishing to do a book on pearls, which I did. So, yes, we did a book which was for sale during the exhibition. That was in 2013. We redesigned the jewelry gallery, and 2008 was the end of that. The pearls exhibition was in 2013, the beginning of 2014.   Sharon: Why was it redesigned, the gallery?   Beatriz: The jewelry gallery. With all galleries, there comes a point where they need to be refreshed and renewed, and the previous design needed it. You even had gates you had to get through, and if you weren't quite as slim as myself, you would have problems getting through the gates. When it was redesigned, it was a completely different aesthetic. As I said, the boards have to tell the story, so when the visitor walks in, they have to understand the story and go from one to the other. Some people say the gallery is very full, but it is a study collection. We asked the education department artists to do certain things.    I was very keen on going “from cradle to grave.” The gallery is chronological, so you want a display before you start to know why you wear jewelry. A child wears jewelry or a mother wears jewelry to protect them at childbirth, or they wear it for status or religion or whatever it is. Jewelry is multitasking, multifunctional. Today we think of jewelry as decorative, but that is not the case. Jewelry was made for an occasion and a reason. With status, you always have the big diamonds and the big stones. That has always existed, in recently centuries definitely. But there are so many more reasons for jewelry, for mourning and birth and good luck. That sort of exists today, probably with charms. So, jewelry is multifunctional.    Then we have a screen with pictures from different centuries showing portraits because, at a jewelry gallery, you can't see the pieces on someone. They need the body, but they don't have the body. So, it's good to have a screen showing how the jewelry was worn through the centuries, which is very important. Also in the display, each board—let's say you had earrings, a necklace and a bracelet. The concept was that what you wear on the top of the head goes on top. What you wear around your neck comes next and then the base, so you have a feeling of an abstract body in a way. It's not always obvious, but I try to think of it logically.    Of course, with the contemporary, we couldn't do that. It is all chronological until you get to about the 1950s, and that's it. You have to find a completely different concept. So, we decided to do it by materials. Good chronology at the beginning, but then it comes into materials. Natural materials, new metals, techniques. You couldn't do decades. That couldn't work. So, we did it by materials, which is an interesting aspect because you have all the different materials they use in comparison to all the gold and silver you see throughout the gallery. Suddenly, you're seeing a whole wall of completely different materials.   Sharon: What is your role as co-curator? You're curator and co-curator of so many places. What's your role as a co-curator? What do you do? What do they call in you for?   Beatriz: It's an advisory role. The Victoria and Albert Museum is a bit more than just an advisory role. You're working with the team, with the architect. It's a team procedure, but as I say, everybody has their own role to play. It intermingles, of course.    Sharon: At other times, you've talked about a different museum in Switzerland where you came, and it looked just—was it at eye level? Was it low? Was it too high?   Beatriz: Oh, that one, no. You remembered that detail. The eye level, that was the Victoria and Albert Museum. That is in the center of the gallery because we did a display for a tourist who goes to the museum and only has 10 minutes to look at jewelry history. So, in the center you've got these curved glass cases. The jewelry is on special mounts. You remember that. I asked my colleagues of different heights, from four foot something to six foot something. In the storage room, we had glass doors where there was a lot of storage space with artifacts in it, and I used Post-it Notes to put the different heights of people to see what a good eye level is. So, if you're looking at a broach or a tiara or something, you want it on the level where you more or less visualize it on your body so you can see it well. So, yes, that's the Post-it Notes. I used not only double-sided tape and pieces of paper, but also Post-it Notes, trying to find the right height for the pieces.    Eye level is hugely important, but the other museum you're thinking of may be something I'm current advising on. This is really an advisory role. It is a museum that will open next year, the Dubedeen, a German museum. Of course, there are gemologists there that are very specialized, but their museum experience is missing. So, I'm giving a little bit of advice on the background of things. Don't put a plinth that you can fall over. Don't make drawers that a child can get their fingers caught in. You learn these things from places like the Victoria and Albert Museum. There's health and safety. There's also the height of displays, the attention span of visitors. Text shouldn't be too long. It's more of an advisory role than an active role.   Sharon: I'm thinking about attention span. You must have seen that really go down. It seems nobody has more than two seconds for attention anymore.   Beatriz: There is an element of that. I think the Koch Collection of rings in the Jewelry Gallery is one of the most visited in the England museums. When you get to sparkle and glitter, there's more attention span, but not so much on the text.   Sharon: Yeah, that's probably true. You've also done a lot of work on shipwrecks. That's very interesting.   Beatriz: That goes back to 1989. By sheer coincidence, I came to work on shipwrecks. I was in New York when I was working on the Concepción Collection. I met Priscilla Muller of the Hispanic Society of America in New York, and I helped her with some Spanish and Portuguese jewelry. When she was asked, she just didn't have the time to work on the shipwrecks. She thought with my Spanish and Portuguese knowledge, I would be suited for that, so I was asked by Pacific Sea Resources in 1989 to work on an incredible shipwreck called the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción from 1638 that sank. It was the usual thing, mutiny and the wrong person taking care of the ship. That's a private story, not a jewelry story, but the interesting thing is that the jewelry was basically made for Spaniards in the Philippines. The jewelry was made in the Philippines, the majority of it for Spaniards. It was a Spanish colony at the time.   When I was first went through it, I thought, “It looks quite European. It looks O.K.” I signed the contract, and little did I know how much research was involved for the material, which I hardly knew. It was because of the influence. The Spaniards definitely had European design books they brought with them. By then, you had printed books with designs in them, and they must have had them there. Chinese craftsmen were working for them in the Philippines, and of course the Chinese had great skills with outside countries. Some of it looks very European, and some of it is Indian influences, Siamese influences, and influences from Java, Sumatra. The chains, heavy gold chains, were certainly Chinese filigree. In fact, I told the Ashmolean Museum it belonged to Sir Elias Ashmole, whose portrait and chains still exist in the Ashmolean Museum, and I told them that one of the gold chains he had was Chinese. It was given by the Kuffners from Brandenburg, and I happened to find out that the Kuffners from Brandenburg travelled to China. So, that all fit. That was a little like detective work. That was published in 1990.   I've recently been working again on shipwrecks, just a few pieces of absolutely fascinating jewelry found off the shore of the Bahamas, which has now been in the Maritime Museum on the Bahamas for only a few months. I also worked on the Atocha in Key West. I organized an exhibition in Hanover for them, where we did a display of the Atocha and Santa Margarita events. But what's so fascinating about shipwrecks is that we see so many portraits of beautiful jewelry from the Renaissance, the 16th, 17th centuries, where they really documented beautifully painted jewelry in paintings. Thanks to that we can study them in detail. All this jewelry doesn't exist anymore, especially gold chains, because gold chains were the easiest thing to melt and reuse for more modern jewelry. As I have said, I have a smile when somebody talks to me about recycled gold being something new. Well, it's nothing new. Recycling gold goes back centuries.    Sharon: I'm surprised because in the pictures, you always think it's a straightforward gold chain with no Chinese engraving or anything. You think of it as a gold chain.   Beatriz: Some of it is simple, what they called a P-chain. You saw loads of it, especially on Dutch paintings. But in the Atocha there was a spiral. You can see they're very tidy on the portraits, but it looks as if they had a spiral at the back holding the chain so they flowed down properly. Some of those chains we had were definitely Chinese filigree because those chains are filigree. In the 1655 shipwreck from the Bahamas, there's a chain like that, and that's mainly why they asked me to look at it. That certainly reminded me of some of the Concepción work, which was Chinese craftsmanship.    The trade was amazing. You had trade happening in the Philippines. Even the Dutch were trading with the Spaniards. The Dutch were trading silks and spices from China and so on. These big galleons went from the Philippines to Acapulco and Vera Cruz and then to Havana. They went on a route around South America, loading and offloading things from Europe. It's interesting because in Seville, there's the Archivo General de Indias, and there they have all the books on the shipping material. Like with the Atocha, they found out which ship it was because the gold bars have a text mark on them, and that coincided with the documents they have in Seville. It's fascinating. It's a fascinating field.   Sharon: It seems like it.   Beatriz: It's a mystery and it's global, of course. Made in Asia; there's nothing new. It's hundreds of years. There would not be any porcelain in 18th century Europe the other way around.   Sharon: Do you get to see the ship right away? When it comes up, do you see it when they pull it from the ocean?   Beatriz: No. When I was asked to work on the Concepción, I had to travel to Singapore where it was being cleaned and conserved. In one instance I had to say, “Stop cleaning because I think there's enamel underneath, black and white enamel. Stop.” You have to be careful because you have to get rid of the marine dirt. No, I got to see it after it was cleaned or while it was being cleaned.    Sharon: Wow! And then what? It goes to the museum? What happens afterwards?   Beatriz: It nearly got split up and sold at auction. I'm glad it didn't because it's a historical find, but unfortunately you have to go the Mariana Islands to see it. You can't see it always. The material is put together, and it was published in a black and white archaeological report. It was published in 1990, so at least it's documented. National Geographic did a beautiful spread with color, so you know what it's like.   Sharon: What have you learned from parsing these shipwrecks, from researching the shipwrecks?   Beatriz: The extent of influence in Europe of some motifs and how far they went. It was made in the Philippines and sold in Europe because everything that was made and transported on this galleon, the Atocha, at some point went to Seville and then it was traded on. We definitely know that the emeralds the emperors were after came from Colombia and then went through Havana to Seville. It's a fascinating trade, but the trade is something we never think about. In Roman times, the Roman emperor wanted pearls, so they traveled to southern India to get pearls. History does amaze one.    Sharon: It does. You're working on many projects now. What can you tell us about some of them?   Beatriz: I can tell you what's half-finished and what's coming. I've had a year of three books. I co-edited a book with Sandra Hindman, founder of Les Enluminures. I need to add Les Enluminures because for many years, I've been their jewelry consultant. They're based in Chicago, New York and Paris and are specialized mainly in Medieval and Renaissance jewelry, but this has nothing to do with the book we did. It just happened to be that we worked together again. Sandra and myself did something called a liber amicorum in honor of Diana Scarisbrick, a leading jewelry historian. It was for her 94th birthday, and we kept it a secret until her birthday. It had 20 authors in three languages all writing in her honor. That has come out. It's now available. It was published by Paul Holberton. It's on varied topics, from archaeology to today, really. 20 authors contributed towards that.    Today I received my copy of a book I worked on for the Schmuckmuseum, so it's now published. The launch is on Sunday, but I won't be traveling to Germany for that, unfortunately. It has to be a Zoom celebration for me. It's to do with the humanist Johann Reuchlin. He was from Pforzheim. He lived in the late 15th to the 16th century, and it's about script and jewelry from varying periods. It's a lot of contemporary jewelry as well. The cover doesn't really tell you that because it was the 500th anniversary of, I think, his death date. So, he was honored in this book, which has just come out, with essays from many people. Lots and lots of jewelry. That was published by Arnoldsche, and it's called—I have to think of it—German sounds so much easier in this case. It means script and pictures worn on the finger. I worked on rings with script on them.   Sharon: With writing you mean?   Beatriz: Yeah, writing, that's it. There are a lot of other topics in the book as well, but jewelry is certainly the dominant. Yes, they are rings. Mary Queen of Scotts is somebody who wrote her inscription inside the ring and was loyal to the queen. Had that been seen, her head would have gone to the chop. It's rings with prayers on them or rings with some sort of amuletic inscriptions. It's all inscriptions on rings in my case, and it's about Josiah Wedgwood who gave this ring to John Flaxman. You've got a whole history behind it. It's rings with script on them, highly visible on the bezel, either visible on the bezel or inside the hoop.   Sharon: In English or German?   Beatriz: It's basically German, I'm afraid to say, but with lots of good pictures with excellent captions, which are international. I am bilingual in German and English, but I haven't written German for a long time.    I've actually written a third book that's coming out, but that won't come out until January. That was a huge task. It's on jewelry from Bossard from Lucerne. It started in the early 19th century, but the two I worked on were a father and son from 1869 until 1934. That was the period of historicism. It was also a time of fakes of Renaissance jewelry being made, because there were so many collectors who wanted Renaissance but couldn't afford the real Renaissance jewelry. So, it was very tempting for fakers to make fake jewelry. When I started, I didn't know what I was in for, but I have come to the conclusion that it's pure historicism, what Bossard made. I had very little jewelry to go on, just a few pieces in private hands, but I did find by sheer coincidence a drawing, and I found the bishop who it belonged to. You have a hundred drawings by the Bossard Company over this whole period, and it's very interesting material to see their designs they were making. In some instances, it's real Renaissance. I don't know if they were Renaissance or if it was actually made later. Then it gets critical. It's a very complex period, but a very interesting archive in the Swiss National Museum in Zurich.   Sharon: For next year, do you have other projects going on?   Beatriz: Yes, the coming projects. I mentioned the gem museum, which is opening next year. I'm in the midst of advising. I'm going to be working very shortly—I've already started a bit—on the jeweler Eileen Coyne from London. She's been working on jewelry since the 1970s and continues to make jewelry very, very different to anything I've worked on before. What I find so fascinating is that her imagination and inspiration come from the material. It comes with the material and the tools. She also uses interesting gemstones and beads that come from ethnic backgrounds. She uses the most amazing materials. Also jades, carnelians, all kinds of things. So, we're going to do a book. She had a shop in the 80s and into the 90s. Her jewelry was displayed in Harvey Nichols in London, and she had a shop where all the celebrities and royals went shopping. It was quite an interesting clientele. We'll see if we get photographs or if they allow us to show some of the things they bought. It's very much about discretion in such cases. So, that's interesting, a completely different type of jewelry.    I'm really excited about it, but at the same time, I've also been involved, and am more involved now, in an artificial intelligence project. That is a ring that has been designed by Sylvia Reidenbach and John Emeny in England. Sylvia Reidenbach is German, but she teaches in Glasgow and London and all over Europe as well. She has created, with John Emeny, a ring with artificial intelligence based on one or two rings from the archaeological museum in Munich, a few rings from the  Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremburg, and 150 rings from the Koch Collection. There's one design. The machine makes the design, mixes it all and combines it into one design. The ring is now being made. The stone is labradorite. It's been on display since Wednesday last week in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum but will be coming to Zurich afterwards. So, I'll be learning a lot about AI and design. That is completely different from anything. I like the natural materials and history, and then the contrast is the AI.   Sharon: The AI is the dimensions of all these hundreds of rings?   Beatriz: Yes, the images are put into the machine, the AI. Don't ask me the technology of it because I haven't got a clue about AI technology. I'm at the beginning of it all. I'm learning, but I have seen how it develops. The images are fed into the machine, like the 150 rings from the Koch Collection and the others, and the machine designs one ring out of that.   Sharon: Wow! So, it's already made and in the museum.   Beatriz: Only just now. It's hot off the press, but there's more to come on that. There will be more to come on that, yes.   Sharon: You've written several other books. You wrote “A Life in Jewels.”   Beatriz: That is the book we did for Diana Scarisbrick, honoring her. I've written books since 1981, so it's added up quite a bit. Sometime I can give you a list.    Sharon: How about the influence of women on 20th century jewelry? Has it changed jewelry? Has it made it more feminine?    Beatriz: It's an extremely complex story, the role of women in design. You have to see it from the role of the woman in history. Just recently by coincidence, I've seen some material on women painters from the 16th and 17th centuries. In Bologna, for example, there were quite a few, and it's only now coming to the fore. You also have to see high jewelers' workshops in the field of jewelry. You don't have a Renaissance piece of jewelry and know, “So-and-so made it.” That didn't exist. It's only in the 19th century that we start that. The hallmarking system in England goes back to the 13th century, but jewelry was considered smallware, so they didn't consider putting a hallmark on it.    That changed later on, the but the name of the designer is something that we very often don't know. The high jewelers of the 19th century, when you knew the name of who made it in Paris or New York, you never know the name of the designer. That is something that came in in the 20th century. You have some classical examples. With Cartier, it was Jeanne Toussaint. She designed some of the iconic pieces for Cartier and the Duchess of Windsor. She worked for I don't know how many decades designing jewelry. She was a very important female designer. Then you've got Coco Chanel. She designed jewelry, mostly costume jewelry, but she also designed diamond jewelry. Not that she wanted to, but it was for the nation and probably the economy that she did it. Elsa Schiaparelli, with her fantastic surrealist jewelry, made that incredible neckpiece with beetles in plastic. If you had to date that as a jewelry store and you didn't know the background, you'd easily say 1970s or 80s. It's so amazing. In that period, you also had Suzanne Belperron with her really unique designs in jewelry.    Of course, the role of the woman changed after the First World War. You had millions of widows, and they had to work. The whole society was changing. After the Second World War, it became even more evident that women were working. I was very cheeky. I did a lecture. It was in the British Museum, and I was talking about the changing role of men and women buying jewelry. You can imagine the shock of some of them. I said, “Women go out and buy their own jewelry.” Before it was classical: the husband bought the jewelry for the wife. They were the earners, so they bought it. There were a few examples in the early 1900s, like the Duchess of Manchester, whose tiaras are in the Victoria and Albert Museum. She was one of these Dollar Princesses and quite a character. She liked smoking cigars and all. She went off with the family diamonds to Cartier and said, “Make me a tiara, and use up the garments.” You have Lady Mountbatten, who, after the birth of her daughter, Pamela, decided to go to Cartier and buy herself a nice bracelet that she could also wear in her hair in the 1920s.    There are a few examples. On the whole, it was always the husband buying the jewelry, but past that, you have women earning money and buying their own jewelry. The 60s sets off in that direction, and then it becomes jewelry that's more affordable. Jewelry has never been so diverse as in the last decades. It's never been so diverse in all its history. If you look at the Royal College of Art, I think you'll find that, in general, there are a lot more women in training to become jewelers. You find so many names of women designers, now one doesn't even talk about it. Whether it's a man or a woman, it's just become a norm.    Sharon: That's interesting. If you stop to think about it, I don't even know if there are that many male designers. I'm thinking about when I go to studios. You see more women than you do men.   Beatriz: It's more and more, yes. There are more and more women, absolutely.   Sharon: What would you advise? What piece of advice would you give emerging jewelers or people who want to follow in your steps?   Beatriz: Remember that if you're a jewelry historian, you're an academic. Remember that. You have to really enjoy what you're doing. In my case, I was very lucky. I've worked for so many different projects and so many different jewelers internationally. I've specialized in that, but it's very difficult. Maybe, depending on the economic situation, people can volunteer in a museum to learn the trade. I think what you really have to know is do you want to work in a gallery, or do you want to work in an auction? Do you want to work in a museum? They don't always mingle, so you have to learn where you want to go. It depends on what your interests are. If you have anybody, send them to me privately. I'm happy to talk it through.   Sharon: Thank you for being with us.   Beatriz: My pleasure.   Sharon: Well will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.   Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.

Welcome to December 13, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate fancy fiddles and the convenience of cocoa.  Antonio Stradivari crafted about 1,100 stringed instruments during his lifetime. Today, they are amongst the most rare and valuable but none more so than The Messiah. This violin built in 1716 has the quality of being nearly new, though perhaps it's because no one is allowed to play it. Valued at over 20 million dollars, The Messiah was reportedly played in a London shop by Nathan Milstein in the 19th century. He described it as an unforgettable experience. Today the instrument resides in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford as a shining example for repairing other Strads. Though the jury is out on which instruments produce the sweetest sound, celebrate National Violin Day, with your own appreciation of the classics.  Thousands of years ago the process of making hot chocolate was long and tedious. Aztecs roasted the fruit of the cacao tree and ground it with water, chilies and sometimes corn. The drink was prized for its effects and soldiers even drank several cups before battle. Though the recipe changed over the years, the tradition carried on and hot cocoa was even given to troops during the Revolutionary War as medicine and wages. Thanks to a Dutch chemist who separated out the cocoa butter, the powder could be mixed for a handy, packable drink. On National Hot Cocoa Day, celebrate this cold weather fix with some whipped cream or marshmallows.  I'm Anna Devere and I'm Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Richard Mason returns to discuss A.E. Waite's order, The Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, and the special tarot deck developed for private use in rituals. Waite formed the order in 1915 (during WW1) and enlisted the help of artists and a financial backer to create the tarot 'deck,' that is now housed in the British Museum. Notable in the artwork is the shift from 'magic' to 'mysticism', and this artwork reflects Waite's strong views of a 'secret tradition' - a blend of Christianity with various esoteric concepts. Note of Clarification: 'W.M. Yeats' is incorrect; W.B. Yeats was intended during conversation; The master album of the Trinick-Pippet drawings are located at the British Museum (not the British Library). Thanks to Richard Mason for generously providing the images used in this video. PROGRAM NOTES Contact Richard Mason: rwgm@outlook.com Primary Sources: -Myer, Isaac, Qabbalah. The Philosophical Writings of Solomon Ben Yehuda Ibn Gebirol or Avicebron, and their connection with the Hebrew Qabbalah and Sepher ha-Zohar (1888) -Encausse, Gérard, Qabalah: The Secret Tradition of the West (1892) -Édouard E., Blitz, Treatise on The Great Art: A System of Physics According to Hermetic Philosophy and Theory and Practice of the Magisterium (1898) -A. E. Waite's occult journal The Unknown World (1894-95) -Waite, A. E., Azoth, or The Star in the East (1893)   -The Doctrine and Literature of Kabbalah (1899/1902)   -Steps to the Crown (1907)   -The Hidden Church of the Holy Grail (1909)   -The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry (1911)   -The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross (1924)   -The Holy Grail its Legends and Symbolism (1933)   -The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry (volume II) (1936) Secondary Sources: -Gilbert, R. A., A. E. Waite: A Bibliography, (1983) -Gilbert, R. A., A. E. Waite: Magician of Many Parts, (1987) -Hanegraaff, Wouter, “The Mysteries of Sex in the House of the Hidden Light: A. E. Waite and Kabbalah” (2018) -Ferguson, Christine, Reading with the Occultists: Arthur Machen and A. E. Waite and the Ecstasies of Popular Fiction (2016) -Parisious, Roger, Figures in a Dance: The Rider-Waite Tarot, (1987) -Roukema, Aren, Esotericism and Narrative: The Occult Fiction in Charles Williams Fiction, (2018) -Südekum, Stuart, “The Secret Tradition of Silence” (2014) -Südekum, Stuart, Drinking from the Haunted Well: A mystical exploration in the Fairy Land of A. E. Waite, (2014) -Seidmann, Gertrud, The Rev. Greville John Chester and ‘The Ashmolean Museum as a Home for Archaeology in Oxford'. Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, 16(1), (2006), pp.27–33. Theme Music: Stephanie Shea

Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgley, Iris Murdoch, and Philippa Foot are four of the twentieth century's most important British philosophers. Oxford was the place where they met, and where their philosophical views were shaped. On this walking tour you will visit some of the places where events of significance in the lives of the women took place between 1938 and the mid-Fifties. You will learn about their lives and their philosophy. All the locations on this tour, and many more besides, feature in the book Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life, and can be found on the associated website, mappingthequartet.org This podcast (series 6) is a walking tour around Oxford. If you would like to learn about the Quartet's philosophy from the comfort of your home, try our other podcasts (series 1-5) found on womeninparenthesis.co.uk This is episode number #7. There are 18 individual episodes. The order in which we have placed the locations is based on what we thought would make for a pleasant and economic walk, rather than by the chronology of the various events. You can download a map of the journey and a full transcript of this podcast series from womeninparenthesis.co.uk (search for Podcasts within the Creative Resources section). If you would prefer, you can access the walking tour as a single full-length episode - #1 of this series. This production was brought to you by Women In Parenthesis. The walking tour was designed and written by Ana Barandalla and the podcast produced by Amy Ward.

Despite being one of the first civilisations in human history, Sumer is not as well-known as other Bronze Age societies such as Babylonia and, of course, Ancient Egypt.Recent research indicates that the first ever writing system emerged in the Sumerian heartland of southern Mesopotamia around 3500 BC. So who were these Near Eastern pioneers forming some of the first urban settlements along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers?In this episode, Tristan is joined by Dr Paul Collins from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, to help unravel the mysteries of the Sumerians and their trailblazing civilisation.For more Ancients content, subscribe to our Ancients newsletter here.If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dr Paul Collins - Curator at Ashmolean Museum and Co-Principal Investigator of Nahrein Network speaks about story telling and museums in Iraq For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/nahrein/media/podcasts/transcript-interview-paul-collins Date of episode recording: 2018-06-18 Duration: 00:09:05 Language of episode: English Presenter: Mehiyar Kathem Guests: Paul Collins Producer: Mehiyar Kathem

Author and journalist, Dr. Naomi Wolf, rejoins the program to discuss the growing tyranny we are witnessing and experiencing worldwide. She has been writing about the stages of tyranny and now believes America has entered the last stage. We discuss how both the Chinese Communist Party and the World Economic Forum are both pushing for global tyranny for the purpose of their worldwide power grab. You can learn more about Dr. Naomi Wolf at DailyClout.io or you can purchase her new book, "The Bodies of Others".   Learn why you are not getting sufficient minerals from your food or vitamins: ControlYourHealth.care/why-minerals.html See Important Proven Solutions to Keep Your from getting sick even if you had the mRNA Shot - Dr. Nieusma See exclusive interviews on SarahWestall.TV or on Ebener (what is Ebener?)! Sign up at SarahWestall.com/Subscribe MUSIC CREDITS: "Cinematic Trailer" Media Music Group & "Do You Trust Me" by Michael Vignola, licensed for broad internet media use, including video and audio     See on Bastyon | Odysee | Bitchute | Rumble | SarahWestall.tv | Freedom.Social   Biography of Naomi Wolf Dr Naomi Wolf received a D Phil Degree in English Literature from the University of Oxford in 2015. Dr Wolf taught Victorian Studies as a Visiting Professor at SUNY Stony Brook, received a Barnard College Research Fellowship at the Center for Women and Gender, was recipient of a Rothermere American Institute Research Fellowship for her work on John Addington Symonds at the University of Oxford, and taught English Literature at George Washington University as a visiting lecturer. She's lectured widely on the themes in Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love, presenting lectures on Symonds and the themes in Outrages at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, at Balliol College, Oxford, and to the undergraduates in the English Faculty at the University of Oxford. She lectured about Symonds and Outrages for the first LGBTQ Colloquium at Rhodes House. Dr Wolf was a Rhodes Scholar and a Yale graduate. She's written eight nonfiction bestsellers, about women's issues and civil liberties, and is the CEO of DailyClout.io, a news site and legislative database in which actual US state and Federal legislation is shared digitally and read and explained weekly. She holds an honorary doctorate from Sweet Briar College. She and her family live in New York City.    

The Dante exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, for the 700th anniversary year of 2021, brought together some of the Divine Comedy's greatest illustrators, living and dead, from Monika Beisner to William Blake and Sandro Botticelli. Here are my reflections on these studies in line and light depicting darkness and life.Modern works discussed include those by Monika Beisner, Dante and Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise (2001) and Dante and Beatrice and the Mystic Rose of Paradise (2001); Rachel Owen, The Fraudsters (2010-16); and Geoff MacEwan, The Earthly Paradise (2010). For more on my book, Dante's Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey, and other vlogs see www.markvernon.com

Dr. Dorothy Armstrong untangles British efforts to redefine colonial Indian culture, through a 19th century knotted pile carpet woven in Lahore Central Jail. Produced with the low-cost labour of Indian prisoners, jail carpets were big business in the British Empire. Beyond physical coercion, imperial authorities also trapped India in their vision of 'authentic' oriental aesthetics, privileging Persian patterns and Parisian market demands over traditional Mughal methods. This particular carpet was one of a pair, purchased at the 1881 Punjab Exhibition for what would become the V&A Museum. Riding the history of both carpets - one surviving, and missing - into mass manufacture reveals how South Kensington intervened in the crafts of the colonised, centralising control and defining expectations both in India and at home, then and now. PRESENTER: Dr. Dorothy Armstrong, May Beattie Visiting Fellow in Carpet Studies at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. She was previously a lecturer and tutor in Material Histories of Asia for the V&A/Royal College of Art History of Design Programme. ART: Knotted Pile Carpet, Lahore Central Jail (c. 1880). IMAGE: 'Carpet with woollen pile, palmette and leaf designs on a black ground with a red ground border, woven in Lahore Jail, c.1880'. SOUNDS: V&A. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

Today, I'm speaking to Paul Collins, Jaleh Hearn Curator for Ancient Near East at the Ashmolean Museum and Co-Director of the Nahrein Network. Paul's work in collaboration with colleagues in the UK and abroad, and members of the Middle Eastern diaspora is challenging his institution and the rest of us to tell stories that actually resonate with our lives today and also enable us to find common ground with those people who lived in the past. More info in show notes - https://thewonderhouse.co.uk/paul_collins Support @TheWonderHouse on Ko-Fi - ko-fi.com/thewonderhouse or Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TheWonderHouse Rate, Review & Subscribe! Presented/Produced by Sushma Jansari - Produced/Edited by Julia Letts - Music by Dalbir Singh Rattan - Artwork by Aleesha Nandhra