The Art Angle Podcast: Meet the Smithsonian Curator Who Turns Protesters’ T-Shirts Into National Treasures

Welcome to the Art Angle, a podcast from Artnet News that
delves into the places where the art world meets the real world,
bringing each week’s biggest story down to earth. Join host Andrew
Goldstein every week for an in-depth look at what matters most in
museums, the art market, and much more with input from our own
writers and editors as well as artists, curators, and other top
experts in the field.

Although 2020 isn’t even halfway done yet, the worldwide health
crisis and the global uprising over civil rights already guarantee
that this year will be one historians study forevermore. As
challenging as it will be to sort through such monumental events in
hindsight, some institutions and individuals are doing an even more
difficult job: preserving this history as it happens.

One person at the forefront of this effort is Aaron Bryant, a
curator of photography, visual culture, and contemporary history at
the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and
Culture. Bryant leads the institution’s rapid-response
collecting initiative, which seeks to secure the objects,
images, and stories that will allow historians—and the public at
large—to eventually make sense of the events that shaped American
life in pivotal moments, including the tumultuous one we are living
through right now.

On this week’s episode of the Art Angle, Bryant joins Andrew
Goldstein to discuss the historical importance of everyday people,
how t-shirts and rakes can capture the essence of a major protest,
and how this year’s upheaval is similar to—and different
from—previous chapters in American history.

Listen above and subscribe to the Art Angle on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, or wherever you get your podcasts. (Or
catch up on past
episodes here on Artnet News.)

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