Art Scoping

In a free-wheeling conversation with unrivaled legal expert Professor Stephen Urice, we consider multiple topics: Legal tussles in the art market unfolding as a result of the pandemic, tugs-of-war over antiquities and Nazi loot, museum staff layoffs, artist-endowed foundations, art authentication, artists’ rights, and single-donor art museums, a.k.a. private museums. It’s a crash course in art law—fasten your seat belts.

Dr. Michael Shapiro, emeritus director of Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, is today Senior Advisor for Museums and Private Collections at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. A specialist in 19th and 20th century painting and sculpture, he joins us to evaluate the pandemic’s effect on the art world, review his career as a professor, curator, director, and now art market expert, and shed light on challenges facing the leaders of the nation’s preeminent museums.

The Art Assignment is a weekly PBS Digital Studios production by Sarah Urist Green, which has attracted over 23 million views since its debut. The series premiered in 2014 with episodes introducing us all to emerging and established artists, each of whom shares an assignment related to their approach to art. These episodes serve as open calls for makers across the globe, and thousands of artworks have been created and shared in response to the assignments. Sarah’s new book is titled You Are an Artist, published by Penguin Random House.

We head to Paris in this episode to hear from Raina Lampkins-Fielder, curator of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation since February 2019, as well as a program officer of the Foundation’s parent organization, the Souls Grown Deep Community Partnership, which supports the communities that gave rise to the 160 artists represented in its collection.

At a time when keeping your distance can be life-saving, we hear from Risa Puno, a well-known installation artist and sculptor who creates large-scale public artworks that address social issues—and involve close interaction. Her insights about human behavior and our need to connect offer hope for better days ahead.

Dr. Julia Marciari-Alexander is the Andrea B. and John H. Laporte Director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. In this episode she opens the director’s office door and shares insights about her career, the museum she directs, and her thoughts about a wide range of issues, from collecting to creating a welcoming public experience.

Adrian Ellis is the founder of AEA Consulting and the Global Cultural Districts Network. There is no more informed voice to help us all understand some of the dynamics roiling the cultural world in light of COVID-19.