Raw Material

By SFMOMA

What's Raw Material about?

Raw Material is an arts and culture podcast from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Each season focuses on a different topic, featuring voices of artists working in all media and exploring the inspiration and stories behind modern and contemporary art.

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Raw Material episodes:

05.09.2023
I Still Have a Voice (Epilogue)
As an epilogue for the Raw Material: Disability Visibility Mixtape, we’re honored to share an audio piece by this season's podcaster-in-residence Alice Wong. The story first aired on KQED Perspectives, a show that features opinions from folks living in the...
04.25.2023
Museums w/ Amanda Cachia
In this episode Alice Wong introduces us to Amanda Cachia, an independent curator and critic whose work focuses on contemporary art, activism, and disability language in visual culture. Episode Artwork by: Jen White-Johnson (www.jenwhitejohnson.com) Full episode transcript available below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yz6gvmvR623muzyvxbkgHyMyJpYuvPyYHSQ4mu7Qhz4/edit?usp=sharing
04.11.2023
Accessibility w/ Finnegan Shannon
In this episode Alice Wong introduces us to Finnegan Shannon, a multidisciplinary artist making work about disability culture and access. Episode Artwork by: Jen White-Johnson (www.jenwhitejohnson.com) Full episode transcript available below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b5mnmutrmxGUAci1nSxkQT1y6o--8dZ4HX6Eypzc6yY/edit?usp=sharing
03.28.2023
Art & Technology w/ Lindsey D. Felt and Vanessa Chang
In this episode Alice Wong introduces us to Lindsey D. Felt and Vanessa Chang, curators who collaborated on the multidisciplinary art exhibition "Recoding CripTech". Episode Artwork by: Jen White-Johnson (www.jenwhitejohnson.com) Full episode transcript available below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rW9gUlWx_jbxLV7aRTBimrIyoCbfCFY9NvoBiGfBxRI/edit?usp=sharing
03.14.2023
Disabled Artists w/ Jeff Thomas
In this episode Alice Wong introduces us to Jeff Thomas, an urban Iroquois photographer, researcher, public speaker, and curator. Episode Artwork by: Jen White-Johnson (www.jenwhitejohnson.com) Full episode transcript available below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13hGXKXo1tJokHHKtpobdaHdJBG03eb0D-fL_-EAFm38/edit?usp=sharing
02.28.2023
Disabled Dancers w/ India Harville
In this episode Alice Wong introduces us to India Harville, an African American queer disabled femme dancer, somatic bodyworker, activist, and educator. Episode Artwork by: Jen White-Johnson (www.jenwhitejohnson.com) Full episode transcript available below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TlOETTK70geysFM9MpBmYLmQ1ADhCF825M_6DZFC-Ws/edit?usp=share_link
04.13.2022
Raw Material Presents: The Mission Muralismo Audio Zine - Volume I
Raw Material is excited to share The Mission Muralismo Audio Zine – Volume I with our listening audience — because we know how much you love ART about ART! Local writers Olivia Peña and Josiah Luis Alderete interweave their perspectives...
04.06.2022
Visions of Black Futurity Episode 7: Radical Dreaming
In Episode 7, Babette reconnects with EJ, and we hear her loud and clear. Babette talks with KQED’s Pendarvis Harshaw + former Oakland head librarian Dorothy Lazard about what makes Oakland soulful. NIAD artists Deatra Colbert and Halisi Noel-Johnson tell...
03.23.2022
Visions of Black Futurity Episode 6: We All We Got
In Episode 6, Babette is welcomed into the home of artist Mildred Howard. Twice. Listen to Mildred speak about letting her materials inform her, reflecting light through glass bottles, and giving Black women their flowers. Featured: Elizabeth Catlett, Mildred Howard, Evangeline...
03.02.2022
Visions of Black Futurity Episode 5: How Art Lives
In Episode 5, Babette connects with artist Cheryl Fabio to discuss the work, impact, and foresight of her mother, poet and activist Sarah Webster Fabio. Rapper and fellow writer Nappy Nina reflects on the role of community in building an...
02.16.2022
Visions of Black Futurity Episode 4: Black Futurity Rightnowish
In Episode 4 of Visions of Black Futurity, Babette shares an update on their search for Evangeline. Plus, we hear two episodes of Rightnowish hosted by Pendarvis Harshaw, exploring what it looks like to build liberated Black spaces in the...
02.02.2022
Visions of Black Futurity Episode 3: Big Black Open Spaces
In Episode 3, Babette tries to answer the question, “Where will we host our Black art spaces of the future?” In the woods, by the ocean, or in a city center? They turn to artists who deal with matters of...
01.19.2022
Visions of Black Futurity Episode 2: Preparing for Launch
In Episode 2 of Visions of Black Futurity, Babette visits a museum with no walls: the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Museum in Joshua Tree, CA. Purifoy tells us what led him to the desert and Cauleen Smith creates a Black,...
01.01.2022
Visions of Black Futurity Episode 1: Finding Kinship in the Archive
In Episode 1 of Visions of Black Futurity, Babette Thomas takes us on a journey through time. We travel to a 1968 Black arts exhibition in Oakland, California, called New Perspectives in Black Art. It was the first of its...
12.21.2021
Visions of Black Futurity Playlist: The Vibes are Free
Babette sets the sonic table for Season 7 of Raw Material with a playlist of songs inspired by the ethos of the Black Bay Area during the 1960s and 1970s. Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3pfCBgY Featured: Evangeline Montgomery, and Babette Thomas Cover art:...
12.06.2021
Season 7 Trailer: Visions of Black Futurity
Call 415-915-1784. Cover art: Evangeline's Garden by Jeanna Penn @jinamae
08.10.2020
Anselm Kiefer by The Lonely Palette
The art of postwar German artist Anselm Kiefer and the poetry of Holocaust survivor Paul Celan are both layered, dense, and hard to read. Sometimes the best starting point is through the layered, dense, and idiosyncratic ways that an individual...
08.03.2020
Alexander Calder by Accession
This episode talks about a number of pieces by Alexander Calder. Calder is most well known for his mobiles, giant hanging pieces that move subtly with the currents in the room. This episode was produced by Accession. More episodes at...
08.03.2020
Kara Walker by The Way I See It
Roxane Gay reflects on Kara Walker's Christ's Entry into Journalism (2017). The Way I See It, "Roxane Gay and Kara Walker's Christ's Entry into Journalism" was produced by the BBC in association with the Museum of Modern Art New York. ...
08.03.2020
Agnes Martin by Bow Down
The best-selling novelist and essayist, Olivia Laing explores the influential abstract artist Agnes Martin (1912-2004). Martin – a gay, working class woman who forged a path in a male-dominated art world – embraced solitude and didn’t have her first solo...
08.03.2020
Roberto Matta by Art History For All
Art History For All guides you through Roberto Matta’s surreal mental landscape, Invasion of the Night (1941), and explores its connections to physics and psychology. This episode was produced by Art History for All. More episodes at arthistoryforall.com.
08.03.2020
Betye Saar by Recording Artists
This episode focuses on Betye Saar (b. 1926). In a 1975 interview, she discusses the diverse sources for her art and how she prevailed in the face of racism and gender discrimination. This episode is produced by the J. Paul Getty...
08.03.2020
Mark Rothko by The Lonely Palette
“A painting is not a picture of an experience. It is the experience.” — Mark Rothko This episode is produced by The Lonely Palette. More episodes at http://www.thelonelypalette.com/.
08.03.2020
Connor by Everything Is Alive
Connor is a portrait of President William Howard Taft. He's hanging on a wall, but is anybody looking at him? This episode is produced by Everything Is Alive. More episodes at https://www.everythingisalive.com/
08.01.2020
Barnett Newman by 99% Invisible
This episode, "The Many Deaths of a Painting" was produced by 99% Invisible. More episodes at 99percentinvisible.org.
06.01.2020
Raw Material Mixtape: The Beholder's Share
Catch a sneak peak of what’s coming this season on Raw Material's "summer mixtape," from SFMOMA. Season update: Raw Material is temporarily suspending this season to create space for more urgent stories and conversations. Black lives matter.
03.20.2020
Welcome to Raw Material
Welcome to Raw Material from SFMOMA! Start here for a quick introduction to our seasonal arts + culture podcast, by SFMOMA Content Producer and Raw Material creator Erin Fleming.
12.13.2019
Six Degrees Episode 6: Nikhil
Sayre Quevedo, Raw Material’s podcaster-in-residence for Season 6, is at the end of his journey. It all started with a curiosity about the surprising ways humans are connected, and a wild plot to make his way to various artists through...
11.25.2019
Six Degrees Episode 5: Every connection
After a series of false starts, rabbit holes, and mind maps, the time has come for Sayre to (possibly) meet internationally acclaimed artist Nikhil Chopra, the sixth degree of separation. Nikhil is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, splayed upon...
11.18.2019
Six Degrees Episode 4: Nooshin
Nooshin Rostami is a United States–based Iranian artist living in exile. While her father was dying in Iran, Nooshin was 6000 miles away from home. How will she process her grief without physical contact—without seeing her sisters, her mother, and...
11.04.2019
Six Degrees Episode 3: Yetunde
The sounds of rain, a family kitchen, a song, a late-night conversation—do the moments they encapsulate make us who we are? In this episode, Sayre Quevedo travels through artist Yetunde Olagbaju’s memory via a series of intimate recordings that constitute...
10.28.2019
Six Degrees Episode 2: Jazmin
Jazmin Jones is pathologically inept at returning phone calls. In an attempt to clear her conscience (and voice-mail box), the artist decides to make a series of anxiety-inducing phone calls she’s put off for far too long. Listen in as...
10.21.2019
Six Degrees Episode 1: Sayre
Sayre Quevedo begins Raw Material season six by breaking into his ex-boyfriend’s apartment. His goal is to retrieve twenty-two love letters he wrote to a man who doesn’t deserve them. Join Sayre as he searches for signs, symbols, closure, and...
10.14.2019
Season 6 Trailer: Six Degrees
Season 6 Trailer: Six Degrees by SFMOMA
06.24.2019
Raw Material Season 5: San Francisco— Stories From The Model City
Season 5 of Raw Material takes inspiration from a 41 x 37-foot scale model of the city that was recently unearthed, refurbished, and distributed in pieces to neighborhood libraries. Listen in as residents tell stories of life in this vibrant,...
06.18.2019
Season 5 Trailer: San Francisco— Stories from the Model City
Catch a sneak peak of what’s coming this season on Raw Material, from SFMOMA.
12.24.2018
Luvvers Bonus Episode: Stocking Stuffer
A short, holiday bonus episode of Season 4 of Raw Material: Luvvers.
12.10.2018
Luvvers Episode 5: My Art is Gay
Facing persecution in her native Uganda and unwilling to live an inauthentic life, fierce queer artist Leilah Babirye made a choice. She fled her home to discover a world of sexual and artistic exuberance in a new creative community...
11.26.2018
Luvvers Episode 4: Silence Equals Death, So Fuck Loudly
The connection between the art world and the queer scene has not always been as openly discussed as it is today. Delve into the complex relationships between art, activism, and queer identity, and discover the power of making noise...
11.12.2018
Luvvers Episode 3: Make Time, Make Love
Through looking at a variety of relationships, Chelsea investigates the many ways desire can be expressed. Hear the famed love letters Frida Kahlo sent to Diego Rivera, as well as to the lesser-known, though no less poetic answering machine messages...
10.29.2018
Luvvers Episode 2: There's No Such Thing As Too Easy
Sex sells. In this episode, Chelsea Beck analyzes the history of persuasive sexual imagery, and imagines a world where titillation fosters compassion rather than divisiveness. Image: Carolee Schneeman, "Interior Scroll," (1975). Courtesy Carolina Nitsch, NY; photography by Anthony McCall.
10.15.2018
Luvvers Episode 1: What Get's You Hot?
Nayland Blake doesn’t create art to express who they are, they create art to investigate the possibilities of identity. Hear the artist discuss their explorations of the queer, BDSM, kink, and furry scenes, and learn more about their unique...
10.01.2018
Season 4 Trailer: Luvvers
Catch a sneak peak of what’s coming this season on Raw Material, from SFMOMA.
08.06.2018
Mixtape Episode 8: Amy Sherald by Note to Self
In the long history of portraits of First Ladies of the United States, none has drawn a reaction quite like the painting of Michelle Obama by Baltimore native Amy Sherald. Hear the artist discuss art in the age of Instagram....
07.30.2018
Mixtape Episode 7: Carolee Schneeman Yoko Ono by A Piece Of Work
Carolee Schneemann and Yoko Ono have created provocative art throughout their careers. Learn how these artists have dedicated their lives to exploring the pleasures and the vulnerabilities of the human body. This episode is produced by WNYC Studios and MoMA....
07.23.2018
Mixtape Episode 6: Patti Smith and Judy Linn by The Kitchen Sisters
Back when Patti Smith and Judy Linn were kids, they used art to shape the world around them, posing for each other in photographs and starring in each other’s home movies. Hear Linn discuss how the two young Brooklynites...
07.16.2018
Mixtape Episode 5: Maria Tallchief by Stuff You Missed in History Class
An Oklahoman of Osage heritage, Maria Tallchief rose to stardom through years of hard work and dedication. Peek behind the curtain at the globetrotting life of America's first prima ballerina—her loves, her losses, her joys, and her sorrows. This episode is...
07.09.2018
Mixtape Episode 4: Hazel Scott by The Memory Palace
Hazel Scott was a child prodigy, a New York jazz icon, the first African American woman to host her own television series, and an outspoken critic of discrimination in all its forms. Find out how her courage made her a...
07.02.2018
Mixtape Episode 3: Georgia O'Keeffe by The Artsy Podcast
Many people know Georgia O’Keeffe for her flower paintings and depictions of the New Mexico landscape. Discover the very different setting that captured O’Keeffe during her time as a commissioned artist for the Hawaiian Pineapple Company—now the Dole Food Company—...
06.25.2018
Mixtape Episode 2: Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein by Stuff You Missed in History Class
Gertrude Stein is often credited as a driving force behind Modernism and Cubism while her lifelong partner, Alice B. Toklas, is frequently left out of the story. Learn about this power couple and their roles as movers and shakers...

What's Raw Material about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Raw Material episodes:

I Still Have a Voice (Epilogue)

Museums w/ Amanda Cachia

Accessibility w/ Finnegan Shannon

Art & Technology w/ Lindsey D. Felt and Vanessa Chang

Disabled Artists w/ Jeff Thomas

Disabled Dancers w/ India Harville

Raw Material Presents: The Mission Muralismo Audio Zine - Volume I

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 7: Radical Dreaming

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 6: We All We Got

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 5: How Art Lives

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 4: Black Futurity Rightnowish

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 3: Big Black Open Spaces

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 2: Preparing for Launch

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 1: Finding Kinship in the Archive

Visions of Black Futurity Playlist: The Vibes are Free

Season 7 Trailer: Visions of Black Futurity

Anselm Kiefer by The Lonely Palette

Alexander Calder by Accession

Kara Walker by The Way I See It

Agnes Martin by Bow Down

Roberto Matta by Art History For All

Betye Saar by Recording Artists

Mark Rothko by The Lonely Palette

Connor by Everything Is Alive

Barnett Newman by 99% Invisible

Raw Material Mixtape: The Beholder's Share

Welcome to Raw Material

Six Degrees Episode 6: Nikhil

Six Degrees Episode 5: Every connection

Six Degrees Episode 4: Nooshin

Six Degrees Episode 3: Yetunde

Six Degrees Episode 2: Jazmin

Six Degrees Episode 1: Sayre

Season 6 Trailer: Six Degrees

Raw Material Season 5: San Francisco— Stories From The Model City

Season 5 Trailer: San Francisco— Stories from the Model City

Luvvers Bonus Episode: Stocking Stuffer

Luvvers Episode 5: My Art is Gay

Luvvers Episode 4: Silence Equals Death, So Fuck Loudly

Luvvers Episode 3: Make Time, Make Love

Luvvers Episode 2: There's No Such Thing As Too Easy

Luvvers Episode 1: What Get's You Hot?

Season 4 Trailer: Luvvers

Mixtape Episode 8: Amy Sherald by Note to Self

Mixtape Episode 7: Carolee Schneeman Yoko Ono by A Piece Of Work

Mixtape Episode 6: Patti Smith and Judy Linn by The Kitchen Sisters

Mixtape Episode 5: Maria Tallchief by Stuff You Missed in History Class

Mixtape Episode 4: Hazel Scott by The Memory Palace

Mixtape Episode 3: Georgia O'Keeffe by The Artsy Podcast

Mixtape Episode 2: Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein by Stuff You Missed in History Class