Turning tips into memories

Five of the best art podcasts

By Emily Spicer on 6/4/2020

The galleries are closed for now, but there are still plenty of ways to connect with art from the comfort of your own home. Whether you are an art world aficionado or just looking for some easy listening, we have the cultural podcast that will quell your museum cravings. This selection will transport and inform, from tours of quirky museums to discussions on the big issues.

Meet Me at the Museum

This gentle podcast from the Art Fund features some familiar voices in some unexpected locations. In each episode, a comedian or actor tours a UK museum with a friend, musing on the what they find and life in general. It's educational, light-hearted and heart-warming, the Radio 4 of art podcasts.

Art Matters

Art UK's Art Matters podcasts cover an incredibly wide range of subjects, from the art of tarot cards and vaginas, to the camp aesthetic. With a range of industry experts, historian Ferren Gipson takes a topical – and often off-beat – look at art history, with a pleasing mix of popular culture and learned input.

Dialogues

David Zwirner gallery presents Dialogues, 'a podcast about artists and the way they think', hosted by the gallery's head of content, Lucas Zwirner. The most recent podcast features painter Karin 'Mamma' Andersson (who's exhibition in New York was cut short by the Covid-19 outbreak), and her artist husband Jockum Nordström. It is impossible not to be charmed by this couple as the talk about their pets, their work and their artistic family.

The Great Women Artists

We love Katy Hessel's Great Women Artists Instagram page, and so do her nearly 100,000 followers. In each of her podcast episodes Hessel interviews an artist, or joins forces with an art world buff, to bring the work of great women to the fore.

The Art of ...

The Tate's podcasts are presented by a range of cultural heavyweights, including painter Billy Childwish, who discusses mental health in art, and poet Bridget Minamore, who explores those forgotten by art history with artist Kara Walker. These podcasts have been made to accompany the Tate's exhibitions and offer a fresh, contemporary perspective on the big topics.