A conversation on focus, mindfulness, and what art can teach us about experiencing pain.

This episode, hear from Denise Allen, curator of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at The Met, and Jared O’Garro-Moore, PhD, clinical psychologist and assistant professor of medical psychology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Featured artwork: Spinario (Boy Pulling a Thorn from His Foot) by Antico (Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi), probably modeled by 1496, cast ca. 1501

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Spotlight features new perspectives on a single work from The Met collection each month. Familiar and celebrated works serve as the focal point for dialogue—posing questions, building understanding, and conveying how the presence of the work in the Museum has altered, limited, or enhanced the work’s interpretation. The series explores different ways of knowing, and relates to themes beyond art and museums through the expertise and personal experience of invited guests.

Go behind the scenes with Disney animators, stars, and insiders in this podcast produced for the exhibition Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts, presented at The Met Fifth Avenue from December 10, 2021 through March 6, 2022. Hear personal reflections from Beauty and the Beast performers Dame Angela Lansbury and Paige O’Hara (the voices of Mrs. Potts and Belle, respectively), producer Don Hahn, and animators Glen Keane and Jean Gillmore.

To see images of the artwork discussed in this podcast and to learn more about the exhibition, visit met.org/InspiringWaltDisney.

This podcast is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Hear the celebrated painter Alice Neel speak about her life and inspiration and learn how her “radical humanism” and fight for social justice resonates today. Produced for the 2021 exhibition Alice Neel: People Come First, this podcast includes interviews with artists Jordan Casteel and Miguel Luciano and curator Jasmine Wahi.

To see images of the artwork discussed and to learn more about the exhibition, visit met.org/PeopleComeFirst.

This podcast is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Meet the Medici and hear how they leveraged portraits in their quest for power in sixteenth-century Florence.

If you think influencer culture is a twenty-first-century invention, listen to this podcast about Cosimo I de’ Medici. Only a teenager when he became duke, he leveraged art and his community to reinvent the Medici name in his rise to power in sixteenth-century Florence. Commentary by Alessandro Lai, costume designer for the Netflix series, "Medici"; Jenny Tiramani, head of the School of Historical Dress; contemporary portraitist Bisa Butler; and Renaissance scholars Linda Wolk-Simon and Victoria Kirkham. Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini.

Produced for the exhibition The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512–1570.

Before Instagram filters, there were portraits. Listen to contemporary portraitist Bisa Butler and Renaissance scholar Linda Wolk-Simon explore how sixteenth-century artists like Bronzino shaped and promoted the influencers of the sixteenth century.

Produced for the exhibition The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512–1570.

Today we have rock stars. The Medici had poets. Hear Renaissance scholars Linda Wolk-Simon and Victoria Kirkham uncover how one exceptional female poet got lost—and then found.

Produced for the exhibition The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512–1570.

For Cosimo I de’ Medici’s wife, motherhood was her superpower. Hear Costume designer Alessandro Lai, head of the School of Historical Dress Jenny Tiramani, contemporary portraitist Bisa Butler, and Renaissance scholars Linda Wolk-Simon and Victoria Kirkham unravel the ways Eleanora di Toledo’s portrait reveals her status as one of the Medici’s key influencers.

Produced for the exhibition The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512–1570.