In celebration of the exhibition Edges of Ailey, Matthew Rushing, the interim Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, takes us back to his first time seeing the company perform at the Wiltern Theater at twelve-years-old. Matthew discusses the memories of his mother taking him to see the performance, the experience of sitting in the front row, and the profound impact this moment had on the course of his life.
Jan 31, 2025
6 min
In this episode, photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe talks about documenting the Gullah Geechee people of Daufuskie Island. Over a five-year period, the photographs reveal a change over Daufuskie as developers and Hurricane David make their way to these last Gullah Islands.More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/jeanne-moutoussamy-ashe-last-gullah-islands
Dec 24, 2024
8 min
In this minisode, exhibition curator Adrienne Edwards describes the new Edges of Ailey “extravaganza” dedicated to the life, dances, and enduring legacy of the legendary artist and choreographer, Alvin Ailey. Through an immersive eighteen-screen video installation, illuminating archival materials, an ambitious performance program, and wide-ranging artworks by eighty-two visual artists, Edges of Ailey explores a titan of modern dance whose impact reverberates across media and time, and wh...
Sep 18, 2024
10 min
Associate Curator Jennie Goldstein discusses how Day Clean, a painting by Eldzier Cortor (1916–2015), recently found its way into the Whitney's collection. She describes Cortor's interest in depicting Black American life in the South and how he drew influences from his travels to the Caribbean, African Art, European Surrealism, and American Realism.More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/collection-1900-to-1965 See the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.o...
Aug 20, 2024
9 min
In this minisode, teens from the Whitney's Youth Insights Leaders program interview 2024 Biennial artist Holly Herndon. The conversation explores how the artist's identity and creative process are influenced by artificial intelligence (AI). They talk about the ethical use of AI, if AI can elicit an emotional response to art, and the evolution of the art world to include machine learning models as an art form. Visit the Whitney's portal to Internet and new media art, artport, to enter Holly He...
Aug 13, 2024
5 min
In this minisode, teens from the Whitney's Youth Insights Leaders program interview 2024 Biennial artist Kiyan Williams. Williams has two artworks in the 2024 Whitney Biennial: a large sculpture of a neoclassical building made of brown soil that appears to be sinking into the ground, and a shiny chrome sculpture depicting the gay rights activist Marsha P. Johnson. The teens talk to Williams about what the sculptures mean especially when seen together and at this particular moment in time.&nbs...
Aug 5, 2024
11 min
Today we hear from five artists who together form the collective People Who Stutter Create. For their contribution to the 2024 Biennial, the group mobilized the Whitney’s exhibition billboard at 95 Horatio Street, across the street from the Museum and the south end of the High Line. The artists, all of whom stutter, created a public artwork that celebrates the transformational space of dysfluency, a term that can encompass stuttering and other communication differences. In this minisode, we h...
Jul 30, 2024
10 min
Today we hear from Maja Ruznic about one of her two paintings in the Biennial. She talks about finding beauty in sadness, her path to becoming the artist she is today, and the restorative power of awe. More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennialSee the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial?section=53#exhibition-feature
May 30, 2024
5 min
In this minisode, we hear from Cannupa Hanska Luger about his Biennial artwork that takes the form of a tipi inverted and hung from the ceiling of the gallery. But Luger lets us know that, "The tipi is not upside down. The tipi is actually in the right positioning, in right relationship, in a right way in the world if the world isn't as upside down as it is presently." More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennialSee the art described in this minisode: https://...
May 22, 2024
6 min
In this minisode, we hear from 2024 Whitney Biennial artist Dala Nasser. Her work is titled Adonis River and she made it along the banks of that river, now called the Abraham River on Mount Lebanon north of Beirut. The work tells the ever-evolving story of that place and its namesake.More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennialSee the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial?section=40#exhibition-feature
May 7, 2024
6 min
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