Museum Confidential

Museum Confidential is a behind-the-scenes look at museums hosted by Jeff Martin. The show is a co-production of Philbrook Museum of Art and Public Radio Tulsa. New episodes every two weeks.

Ralph Steadman 04/11/2025

Ralph Steadman Ralph Steadman is an English artist and illustrator best known for his long collaboration with the iconoclastic Hunter S. Thompson, notably illustrating "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Their partnership helped define “Gonzo” journalism. On this episode we catch up with Ralph, who turns 89 next month, and his daughter, Sadie, to discuss a career spanning exhibition now on view at Oklahoma State University. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/36093920

On "Japonisme” 03/28/2025

On "Japonisme” When Japan opened its borders for trade and travel in the 1850s, the goods that hit markets across Europe and America sparked an international craze known as “Japonisme.” On this episode we explore the history, legacy, and a new exhibition on this era with Rachel Keith, Deputy Director for Audience Engagement & Curatorial Affairs at Philbrook Museum of Art. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/35906775

What's a Creative Director? 03/14/2025

What's a Creative Director? Museum staff titles are often lengthy, so “Creative Director” seems pretty straightforward. But what exactly does it mean? And what exactly do they do? Bhadri Verduzco holds this position at Philbrook, so on this episode we go straight to the source. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/35699540

Crip Curation and Disability Art 02/28/2025

Crip Curation and Disability Art Why are museums built the way they are? Why do we hang art at that height? If a disabled artist makes art, is it necessarily Disability Art? Who gets to decide? On this episode we explore these questions and more with “Crip Curator” and acclaimed author Amanda Cachia. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/35486205

Reimagining Native Art 02/07/2025

Reimagining Native Art As Season 9 resumes, we travel to New Jersey’s Montclair Art Museum to experience the Museum’s stunning new installation, Interwoven Power: Native Knowledge / Native Art and a chat with Laura Allen, the acclaimed curator behind the long-gestating project. Featuring artists including Shan Goshorn, Fritz Scholder, Holly Wilson, Oscar Howe, Rose Simpson, and dozens of others, the installation reimagines and presents a new template for what it means to display Native Art. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/35193145

Introducing: Immaterial 12/05/2024

Introducing: Immaterial While our midseason break here at MC continues, we would like to introduce our beloved listeners (that would be you) to something special. It's a podcast called Immaterial: 5,000 Years of Art, One Material at a Time; it's produced by our pals over at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. We dig it. You will, too. For more episodes, or more information, please visit . /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/34306405

Return To Taliesin West 11/22/2024

Return To Taliesin West Four years ago, deep in the pandemic, we travelled to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Arizona compound, Taliesin West, to see how they were weathering the unprecedented challenges. We just went back to see what was learned and what remains with Niki Stewart, Chief Learning and Engagement Officer for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/34102101

Charles Gaines 11/08/2024

Charles Gaines A dispatch from the Phoenix Art Museum where we recently traveled to speak with acclaimed conceptual artist, Charles Gaines prior to the opening of a new retrospective. Charles Gaines: 1992–2023 runs through March 9, 2025. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/33854442

Live from Tulsa 10/25/2024

Live from Tulsa This special episode of MC was recently taped before a live audience at Philbrook Museum of Art. Our host Jeff Martin is joined by on stage by interdisciplinary artist Cannupa Hanska Luger, Brooklyn Museum curator Kimberli Gant, and Philbrook Chief Curator Kate Green. They speak in detail about why and how today's museums are diversifying (or attempting to diversify) their collections. Presented in partnership with Tulsa Town Hall. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/33608167

What is American Art? 10/12/2024

What is American Art? What makes American art "American"? Let's discuss. On this episode we welcome back Philbrook curator, Susan Green to chat about the new exhibition, "American Artists, American Stories from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1776-1976." It's a sweeping, varied exhibition offering more than 100 masterworks -- by Mary Cassatt, Barkley L. Hendricks, Edward Hopper, Thomas Moran, Alice Neel, Georgia O'Keeffe, Andrew Wyeth, and many others. It runs through December 29, 2024. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/33432427

From Haiti with Love 09/27/2024

From Haiti with Love On recent trip to Washington, D.C. we stopped by the National Gallery of Art to chat with curator Kanitra Fletcher about a new show she was preparing to debut, the first show dedicated to Haitian art in the history of the institution. As with most things in life, timing is everything. Spirit & Strength: Modern Art from Haiti opens September 29 and runs through March 9th. www.nga.gov /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/33228367

Re-imagining Museums 09/15/2024

Re-imagining Museums On our Season 9 debut we talk with Stephen Reily, attorney, entrepreneur, and former Director of Louisville’s Speed Art Museum about REMUSEUM, his ambitious new project to reimagine what museums can be. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/33056792

Banksy Unmasked 05/30/2024

Banksy Unmasked Psyche! We’re not actually unmasking Banksy on this episode, but we are taking a closer look at the recently-opened museum in New York City dedicated to the famously anonymous street artist/activist. William Meade is the Executive Director of the Banksy Museum in Manhattan and we have no idea if he knows Banksy’s true identity. For all we know he could actually be Banksy! It’s all a bit complicated. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/31540232

Art Fair Diaries: Chicago 05/10/2024

Art Fair Diaries: Chicago On the final installment of our ART FAIR DIARIES trilogy, Philbrook Chief Curator and roving MC correspondent, Kate Green takes us to the land of John Hughes movies and deep-dish pizza. Welcome to EXPO CHICAGO. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/31233502

The Things We Keep 04/26/2024

The Things We Keep Acclaimed artist Chris Ramsay’s work deals with big, universal subjects: time, space, impermanence, what we discard, and what we choose to keep. Now, after receiving an incurable cancer diagnosis, Chris is confronting the biggest questions of all. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/30994953

Art Fair Diaries: Mexico City 04/13/2024

Art Fair Diaries: Mexico City For this new installment in our Art Fair Diaries series, Philbrook Chief Curator (and occasional roving Museum Confidential correspondent) Kate Green reports from the biggest art fair in one of the world's biggest cities. Welcome to Mexico City. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/30805838

On Sovereign Futures 03/30/2024

On Sovereign Futures Our guest is curator Allison Glenn; we previously spoke to Glenn a few years ago about her Breonna Taylor-inspired show, "Promise, Witness, Remembrance." Now Glenn is curating a multi-venue, multi-day, multi-focused convening titled Sovereign Futures, which runs April 4th through the 7th. Per the Sovereign Futures website, various "artist-led projects will explore themes of sovereignty through...food, land, speculative futures, and histories of the place that is now called Oklahoma." /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/30602563

The Insider 03/15/2024

The Insider Our guest is acclaimed journalist Bianca Bosker, who tells us that -- when it comes to which topics she chooses to investigate and cover -- she's "obsessed with obsession." Bosker's latest book is "Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See." She was a security guard at the Guggenheim. She worked in a commercial gallery. She was a studio assistant to an emerging artist. What Hunter S. Thompson did with the Hell's Angels, Bosker does with Art History majors. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/30383373

The Future of Museum Funding? 02/23/2024

The Future of Museum Funding? A recent headline in The New York Times read: To Save Museums, Treat Them Like Highways. There’s no shortage of conversations about museum funding models. But after reading this one, arguing that museums should be thought of more like infrastructure, it was time for another. On this episode we speak to one of the piece’s co-writers, Laura Raicovich, former Executive Director of New York’s Queens Museum. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/30075918

Live in Reno with Cannupa Hanska Luger 02/09/2024

Live in Reno with Cannupa Hanska Luger The Nevada Museum of Art invited us out for a live show in Reno with acclaimed indigenous artist Cannupa Hanska Luger. Futurism and speculative fiction are just two of many terms that describe Luger’s unforgettable work and the special exhibition, SPEECHLESS. On this episode we chat with Luger and Apsara DiQuinzio, the Museum’s Senior Curator of Contemporary Art. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/29869408

Film & Fashion: Killers of the Flower Moon 01/26/2024

Film & Fashion: Killers of the Flower Moon Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon just nabbed ten Oscar nominations, including one for Costume Design. But how do you authentically take people back to the Osage Nation of the 1920’s? How do you get every detail just right? Meet Julie O’Keefe, the Osage Nation wardrobe consultant hired to do just that. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/29657878

Edward Hopper Abides 01/12/2024

Edward Hopper Abides On our first episode of 2024, we chat with the co-directors of an acclaimed new PBS American Masters documentary on legendary New York painter, Edward Hopper. “Hopper: An American Love Story” has it all; lonely people in rooms, quiet city streets, difficult relationships, and plenty of secrets revealed. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/29456348

Art Basel Miami Beach: A Diary 12/15/2023

Art Basel Miami Beach: A Diary Art Basel Miami Beach, the biggest international modern/contemporary art fair in North America, took place earlier this month; thousands of art dealers, artists, collectors, curators, and art aficionados showed up. Kate Green, the Chief Curator & Nancy E. Meinig Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at Philbrook Museum of Art, was among those attending this very active and multifaceted annual event (or series of events). At our request, Green kept an audio diary while she was there. She joins us on MC to share her diary and discuss this gala expo more generally. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/29091918

Sharon Stone 12/01/2023

Sharon Stone You probably know Sharon Stone the actress. It’s time you get to know Sharon Stone the ARTIST. Over the past few years, the Oscar nominee has turned painting into a dedicated daily practice. On this episode we talk about inspiration, early museum experiences, a new exhibition, and so much more. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/28879233

Impossible Music 11/10/2023

Impossible Music We travel to Pittsburgh’s Miller Institute of Contemporary Art (Carnegie Mellon University) for the special exhibition, IMPOSSIBLE MUSIC, a fascinating collection of sounds, scores, sculptures, video, live performances, and more. First up we have a big picture chat with the ICA’s Director, Elizabeth Chodos before a deeper dive with acclaimed curator Candice Hopkins and Pulitzer Prize-winning artist/composer, Raven Chacon. IMPOSSIBLE MUSIC runs through December 10. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/28577978

Trade & Transformation 10/27/2023

Trade & Transformation Every object holds a story. That’s the idea behind the thought-provoking new Philbrook exhibition, TRADE & TRANSFORMATION. Curator Kalyn Fay Barnoski (Cherokee Nation enrollee, Muscogee descent) originated and organized the exhibition. On this episode she joins us to chat about how she came to create it. Trade & Transformation is on view through December 30. Details at Philbrook.org. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/28438544

Live in Iowa: Words & Pictures 10/13/2023

Live in Iowa: Words & Pictures In 2008, a catastrophic flood shut down the art museum on the University of Iowa campus. 15 years later, the museum has finally reopened with a new building, new name (The Stanley), and a new catalog created in partnership with the legendary Iowa Writer’s Workshop. They invited us up to chat about all of it. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/28305611

Scorsese, Songs, and More with Randall Poster 09/22/2023

Scorsese, Songs, and More with Randall Poster From time to time we explore the question, “what is a curator?” For the past 30 years, Randall Poster has been searching for, securing rights for, and working alongside directors to find the perfect moment for music in countless films. The official job title is Music Supervisor. It could easily be called “Music Curator.” In 2023 alone, his slate includes Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” and Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/28111148

Erasing History 09/08/2023

Erasing History Video journalist Alexandra Eaton of The New York Times joins us to share an unforgettable story that begins with a painting created in 1837 New Orleans. It depicts a well-to-do family’s three children and a Black enslaved child named Bélizaire. Decades later, Bélizaire was removed from the portrait. Experts have restored the work to its original state, revealing the enslaved youth who had been painted out of history. It goes on display this fall at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/27975429

Summer Vacation to “Dalíland” 07/21/2023

Summer Vacation to “Dalíland” In the new biopic, Dalíland, acclaimed director Mary Harron give us a glimpse into the Salvador Dalí’s later years in 70s New York City via the immense talents of Academy Award-winner, Sir Ben Kingsley. From her look at attempted assassin Valerie Solanas in I Shot Andy Warhol to the murderous broker Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, Harron has always been attracted to infamous, challenging, and to put it lightly, difficult people. The film is now on demand now wherever you watch movies. On our special summer episode we chat with Harron about Dalíland and much more. /episode/index/show/museumconfidential/id/27526641

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