Two new podcast series

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This autumn The Fitzwilliam Museum launches two new podcast series What are museums for? and New Art New Perspectives.

‘What are museums for’ is hosted by Museum Director, Luke Syson, and Athena Art Foundation Director Nicola Jennings, who invite a range of cultural figures – from curators and researchers to activists and writers – to share their thoughts on the role of the museum in the 21st century. Across six lively and candid conversations, Luke, Nicola and their guests look at the modern museum through a variety of lenses, exploring some of the key questions museums around the world are currently asking themselves.

Questions include:

How can museums represent the diverse communities they serve?
To whom do cultural artefacts and their narratives belong?
What role can digital technologies play?
How can museums work sustainably to preserve our futures, as well as our pasts?

Nation is the first topic of conversation to launch the series on Thursday 28 October, available to download from the ‘What are museums for’ podcast page, with the next episodes in the series published monthly after that.

A complementary podcast series ‘New Art, New Perspectives’ introduces you to The Fitzwilliam Museum’s latest acquisitions and displays. Through short, intimate conversations with artists and curators, host Dan Vo offers listeners ways to look at and think about the featured artworks as well as give insight into their place in The Fitzwilliam’s wider collection. Highlighting artists of colour and underrepresented stories, the series explores the importance and relevance of contemporary art to historic collections. From Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s striking etchings of black figures to the extraordinary forms of Magdalene Odundo’s ceramics; from new works on Gaza to the refugee crisis and the Iraq War, these podcast offer a fresh view of The Fitzwilliam Museum. The first episode of this series focusses on the contemporary ceramics of Magdalene Odundo, currently on show in The Fitzwilliam Museum, and will launch on Thursday 19 November.

All of the podcast series will also be available to stream from podcast providers including Spotify and Apple. Follow our social media accounts for episode launch updates.