doubleXposure Podcast

A new season of doubleXposure is coming your way on June 16th.

Co-hosts Vivian Phillips and Marcie Sillman will focus on the way arts and cultural activities help to build, foster and sustain community identity. We'll explore four Seattle neighborhoods, including Uptown, with the historic Seattle Center campus at its heart.

For more than 20 years James Whetzel has programmed the music that inspires visitors to the Center's iconic International Fountain. Check out this short conversation with him.

doubleXposure co-hosts Vivian Phillips and Marcie Sillman give a brief introduction to Season Two, focused on the role arts and culture play in fostering and sustaining communities.

As the pandemic heads into a third year, we've all learned a lot. In the performing arts world, despite Omicron and other COVID setbacks, producers, presenters and artists are reinventing the rules for live performance.

Josh LaBelle, head of Seattle Theatre Group, has been on the frontlines when it comes to writing new rules for live arts, whether that's a touring Broadway show or a rock concert. 

He talks with co-host Vivian Phillips about what he's learned, what keeps him up at night and why he stays optimistic.

Arts organizations around the world have been playing a guessing game: when is it safe to reopen? And if they do open their doors, how likely is it that Covid will force another shutdown?

Seattle Repertory Theatre Managing Director Jeffrey Herrmann has been trying to predict the future. His nonprofit theater company  reopened to live audiences in January 2022, and he's crossing his fingers that they'll be able to welcome patrons throughout the coming months.

Herrmann talks to co-host Marcie Sillman about the challenges he--and every other arts organization--faces as we approach Covid's 2-year anniversary.

In late 2021, Seattle's Henry Art Gallery invited doubleXposure co-hosts Vivian Phillips and Marcie Sillman to visit the exhibition Packaged Black, featuring artwork by Barbara Earl Thomas and Derrick Adams, and to respond to what we saw.

The show is amazing, and we were so moved by what we saw that we thought we'd offer it to you as a bonus episode, a little glimmer of hope for 2022.

David Armstrong led Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre for 18 years. During his tenure, he led the push to transform a venue for presenting touring Broadway musicals into a launching pad for new work, including the award-winning shows Hairspray and Come from Away.

Since Armstrong's "retirement," he's been teaching a University of Washington class on the history of Broadway, and hosting a popular podcast, Broadway Nation.

He talked about Broadway's past, present and future with Vivian and Marcie

Greg Kucera opened his eponymous Seattle art gallery in the mid 1980's, as the city was emerging from the economic doldrums. Over the years he represented some of the Northwest's most esteemed artists. But Kucera also was a tireless advocate both for their personal welfare, and for the health of Seattle's arts community.

This year he retired from the business and moved to a castle in France. Before he left, though, Kucera made one last gift to the community he loves. 

Seattle-based artist Barbara Earl Thomas is having a moment.

A moment that just keeps getting longer. Thomas's well-reviewed one-woman show at Seattle Art Musem, Geography of Innocence, got held over through the winter holidays. Across town at the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, her show with artist Derek Adams, Packaged Black, shows Thomas' mastery of both her craft and the messaging she imbues into her artworks.

Marcie and Vivian visited Thomas in her studio last summer. We decided to bring you this episode again, because we liked it so much. 

Seattle was one of the first city's in the country to adopt a law that mandates a percentage of every public construction budget pay for public art. 

That was in 1972; now the city has hundreds of objects in its collection, from murals to manhole covers. 

But who owns it? And who takes care of it? 

Marcie Sillman talks to Seattle Office of Arts and Culture Deputy Director Calandra Childers to find some answers.

When COVID hit the globe in early 2020, Seattle-based choreographer Donald Byrd was getting ready to debut a multi-faceted project called the Race and Climate Change Festival.

Like artists around the world, Byrd had to find a new way to create and present his artistic vision. In the process, the 72-year old learned some interesting life lessons.

He shares his thoughts with co-hosts Vivian Phillips and Marcie Sillman in this interview originally broadcast in August, 2021.