Episodes – Art History For All

Episode 24: A Place to Rest

Published June 8, 2020

Lots of food for thought in this episode as Allyson discusses a Shona headrest from Zimbabwe in the Met’s collection: how do such objects come to be in Western museums? Should they be returned to their cultures of origin?

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#podcastblackout

Published June 1, 2020

In protest of the epidemic of racism and police brutality that affects Black people in America daily, this episode is part of #podcastblackout, a movement begun by the Cult 45 Podcast. The list of victims of police violence in this episode is significantly abbreviated.

Below are some resources to educate yourself on anti-racism and support anti-racist work. Use these resources as a starting point. Allyship is a process. Do not stop educating yourself, and above all LISTEN TO THOSE TO WHOM YOU WISH TO BE AN ALLY.

Donate to Black Lives Matter. Donate to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Donate to The Bail Project.

Find a Black Lives Matter chapter near you.

A breakdown of anti-racism from the National Museum of African American History & Culture

Just one of many Anti-Racism Reading Lists

How to Be an Ally if You Are A Person With Privilege, Frances E. Kendall

The Case for Reparations, Ta-Nehisi Coates (and in audio format here)

Holy shit, being an ally isn’t about me!, WOC & Allies

The Racist Housing Policy that Made Your Neighborhood, Alexis C. Madrigal

1619, a podcast by the New York Times

Intersectionality Matters!, a podcast by Kimberlé Crenshaw

Code Switch, a podcast from NPR

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Episode 23: Rock Steady

Published March 9, 2020

AH4A is back with an episode that ROCKS! Allyson discusses the rock art at Serra da Capivara National Park, Piauí, Brazil, and what its story reveals about what we do (or don’t) value.

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Episode 22: Gilded Gingerbread

Published December 24, 2019

An icon of the head of John the Baptist (c. 1680) from Yaroslavl is the focus of this last episode of 2019, prompting a discussion of how Russia has been viewed across history.

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Episode 21: A Paintbrush in Her Hand

Published November 25, 2019

Indigenous Canadian artist Daphne Odjig’s painting Bathed in Sunlight (1983) and the larger story of Odjig’s career prompt us to think about Native art and how it is (or isn’t) included in the mainstream contemporary art world.

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In Focus: Conservation Horror Stories

Published October 31, 2019

It’s Halloween 2K19 and Allyson is sharing a very specific type of horror story–art conservation horror stories! Listen in, and then share your own tales of artsy mishaps by emailing allysonh[at]arthistoryforall.com!

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Episode 20: Big Odalisque Energy

Published October 28, 2019

There are lots of different types of bodies in the world, but artist Fernando Botero focuses on the rounder kind–in this episode, Allyson tells you about Botero’s 1998 painting L’Odalisque, and talks about how it relates to body image and ideas of the “other.”

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Episode 19: The Casco and the Yacht

Published October 1, 2019

Allyson discusses Filipina artist Anita Magsaysay-Ho’s Girls with Baskets (1966), and how colonialism, class, and global politics affect even the most sentimental of art.

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Episode 18: As Much Worker as Woman

Published August 26, 2019

Allyson discusses Myra Albert Wiggins’s The Lacemaker (1899, Portland Museum of Art), workin’ hard for the money, and types of labor that we might not see as labor. This one’s for you, needleworkers!