Naturally, we love books about art and movies about art around here. For some good studio-time motivation, though, there’s something to be said for podcasts.
Why podcasts? Because they’re free and anybody can make them, they’re a great way for working artists to share resources and build community. As you’ll see in our selections below, you don’t have to be famous to be interviewed on a podcast, which makes them the perfect place to hear from artists at different points in their careers.
Here are five to download for the next time you’re in the studio:
These five all share the same basic format: the artist interview. Green excels at it. Part of the appeal is the occasional big-name artist, but you’ll also hear from writers, art historians, and the like.
While other podcasts (below) dive into artists’ business experiences, and arts journalism often focuses on the global art market, Green prefers to keep things about the art itself.
Even if you haven’t heard of the Jealous Curator, you’ve probably seen her influence: the artwork featured on the blog spreads like wildfire to Pinterest and beyond. The blog features a different contemporary artist a day, based on the common sentiment “Damn! I wish I’d thought of that.” The podcast is an extension of the same idea.
The podcasts feature a more conversational style and less-famous artists than Modern Art Notes, along with a healthy dose of enthusiasm from the host. You get a sense of how the interviewees live as artists, from surviving art school to getting noticed on the internet.
As you can tell from the title, the Conversation follows a similar interview-based format, striving for more of an informal and perfomative feel. In the first episode linked above, Shaw and guest Gaylord perform an amusing real-life email chain between Gaylord and an art scammer.
In other episodes, you’ll hear artists, writers, and gallerists talk about the places they live and work (usually New York or LA)
Here’s one to listen to when you sit down to edit. This is a podcast from the photo retailer, B&H, so you might expect the focus to be on gear — and while there are episodes about equipment, people and processes are also a big part of the conversation.
The B&H Podcast frequently has multiple guests per episode, for more of a roundtable feel than some of the other interviews here. It’s also less than a year old, so it doesn’t have too deep a back catalog to sift through, but we’re excited to follow it.
Just over two years old and already 232 episodes in, this is — you guessed it — a podcast about pottery and ceramics. Every few days brings a new interview with a different potter, accompanied by additional materials on the website. They talk about process, of course, but also careers and the reality of living as an artist: the podcast’s tagline is “picking up where the art degree ends.”
The episodes tend to be a little too long, but it’s a nice conversation to listen to while you do other things.
There’s our list! We hope that, if you really enjoy one of these podcasts, you’ll leave the creator a comment or a donation. What art podcasts do you listen to? Let us know in the comments!
Sign up for our weekly blog newsletter, subscribe to our RSS feed, or like us on Facebook for the latest Art League news. Visit our homepage for more information about our classes, exhibits, and events in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.
You can support The Art League every time you shop through AmazonSmile!
Simply set The Art League as your chosen charity, and every time you shop at smile.amazon.com, a portion of your purchase will be donated to support our mission to share the experience of visual arts with the community.
