Museum Confidential

On this episode we take an in-depth look at the very first Philbrook Director, Eugene Kingman. An acclaimed artist in his own right, Kingman’s journey included stops at Yale, The Rhode Island School of Design, the offices of The New York Times, and the organization that would become the C.I.A. We chat with Mark Brown, longtime journalist and executive assistant to the current Philbrook Director.

What are we saying when we refer to a piece as "bad" art? All of us probably have guilty pleasures, or maybe a favorite mistake or two, but what does it mean to seek out and really cherish certain works of bad art? This episode of our podcast features a conversation with Louise Sacco, the so-called Permanent Acting Interim Executive Director of MOBA (a/k/a The Museum of Bad Art).

For our special Valentine's Day episode we explore many different kinds of love, from the boomtown couple that founded Philbrook to the supposed foot fetishism of an iconic French artist. Keep an ear out for cameos by Marie Antoinette and Edward Hopper. 

Gilcrease Museum houses the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of art and artifacts of the American West. This episode features a chat with Gilcrease Senior Curator Laura Fry and special appearances by Neil Young and Henry Kissinger.

Explore the bookish side of museums in a revealing conversation with poet, Kenneth Goldsmith, the first and only Poet Laureate at New York City's iconic Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). 

Arguably at the height of his career with work in Vanity Fair and Vogue, regularly shooting the likes of Jesse Owens, Gary Cooper, and Katharine Hepburn, photographer Lusha Nelson died in 1938 at the age of 30. His personal archive remained lost until 2015 when it was rediscovered by Philbrook. Hear the amazing true story.

Movies and museums. Museums and movies. They go together like popcorn and Milk Duds. On this installment of our podcast, we speak with Charles Elmore of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. Topics include memorable motion pictures of 2017, what makes a film an "art film," how today's so-called Golden Age of Television relates to (or doesn't relate to) today's films and filmmakers, and so forth. 

Our first in-depth artist chat, with acclaimed photorealist, Karl Haendel. Topics range from the best types of pencils and football to Dutch artist M.C. Escher and politics. See Haendel's work in the current Philbrook Downtown show, "Game On."

Sweetness! It's an extended and ever-so-tuneful edition of our podcast for the extended holiday weekend. Listen in as our host Jeff Martin and producer Scott Gregory dig various songs and/or bands inspired by art and/or artists and/or museums and/or The Muse. Sonic bliss? Odd audio? Both? Neither? It's in the ear of the beholder, friends.

Look for the companion "Museum Confidential" playlist on Spotify.

An in-depth chat with Hrag Vartanian (Hyperallergic) and Sharon Louden, two of the most prominent thought leaders in the art world today. Topics range from early museum experiences to a one-way trip to Mars.