Meet Me at the Chazen presents a uniquely intimate view of the Chazen Museum of Art’s past, present, and future. This season, we're diving into the museum's archives! Join us as we explore hidden corners, nuanced exhibitions, facts, fiction, and more through engaging conversations with the podcast team and Gianofer Fields, the Chazen’s storyteller in residence. We'd love to know what you think—follow us on Instagram at @meetme.chazen or email us at meet@chazen.wisc.edu!
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Send us a Text It turns out that the Chazen's archives are packed with detailed documentation of—yes, the art, but also the food that was served at the museum. Meet Me at the Chazen host Gianofer Fields digs into a 1996 reception menu and gets the Chazen staff involved. Listen at the link below or wherever you get your podcasts. Questions? Post the…
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The Archive: Should It Stay or Should It Go?
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields shows us the archival decision-making process as Registrar Andrea Selbig and Archivist Jordan Craig consider what to do with an array of items from the Chazen's past. "Stay or go" is just the first question among several that get asked. Listen in as the process unfolds in real time, as they consider anniversary b…
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Send us a Text Garbage? Detritus? Ephemera—or archival gold? Host Gianofer Fields, Archivist Jordan Craig, and Facilities Manager Adam Hutchinson shine a (figurative and literal) light into some of the Chazen's shadowy corners to find potentially worthy materials that haven't been cataloged yet—the so-called dark archive. From press clippings and a…
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Send us a Text What comes to mind when you think of the word "archive"? Is it a pristine, climate-controlled vault or a dusty, musty corner of the basement? Host Gianofer Fields talks with Chazen Chief of Staff Lindsay Grinstead to learn about the origins of the Chazen's archives. She follows up with archivist Jordan Craig to get a better picture o…
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Send us a Text UW–Madison journalism major Gabriella Hartlaub was always that kid in the back asking why, why, why. In conversation with host Gianofer Fields, she brings that inquisitive nature to the Insistent Presence exhibition, reflecting on the ways it might shape the way she approaches her profession. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about …
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Send us a Text In this week's episode of Meet Me at the Chazen, Host Gianofer Fields talks with someone who's had hours and hours to observe the finer details of, and people interacting with, the Insistent Presence exhibition of contemporary African art. Visitor Services Assistant Erin Coron says that even though she sees the works on every shift, …
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Send us a Text In this episode of "Meet Me at the Chazen," host Gianofer Fields and Chief Curator Katherine Alcauskas discuss the unique challenges posed by the pandemic in acquiring and curating new art for the Insistent Presence exhibition. Alcauskas says having a guest curator brought essential outside perspective to the exhibition, which will h…
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields and art history scholar Giulia Paoletti discuss the history of photography in Senegal, its meaning as a medium used in everyday life, and its use by a range of artists. Paoletti highlights the practice of xoymet, the creation of photo walls for weddings, and the work of artists like Ibrahima Thiam, who have rewor…
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Insistent Presence: Margaret Nagawa, Part 3
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Send us a Text After an interruption, Host Gianofer Fields and guest curator Margaret Nagawa finish their walkthrough of the Insistent Presence exhibition. Touching on themes of memory and movement, they discuss works by artists like Khaled Ben Slimane, Moataz Nasr, and El Loko, noting how they deeply evoke humanity without needing physical represe…
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields puts you in the middle of moving a work of art that is a centerpiece of the Insistent Presence exhibition: Exodus by Barthélémy Toguo, a work that comments on the movement of people throughout Africa. Listen for the hiss of the tire pump, the squeaky wheels, and the groans of the Chazen's freight elevator (which,…
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Insistent Presence: Margaret Nagawa, Part 2
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields revisits the Insistent Presence exhibition gallery with guest curator Margaret Nagawa, getting behind Nagawa's color choices, use of space, and the art groupings that help gallery viewers forge connections between North America and the African continent. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University…
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Send us a Text Ugandan curator Serubiri Moses and Host Gianofer Fields discuss the work of two South African photographic artists a generation apart: Santu Mofokeng, whose Black Photo Album debuted at second Johannesburg Biennial, and Lebohang Kganye, whose work appears in the Chazen's current exhibition Insistent Presence. Meet Me at the Chazen is…
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Send us a Text As a boy growing up, Ghanaian visual artist Nana Yaw Oduro knew his view of the world was different. "I used to ask myself, Why? Why me? Why? Why am I like strange? Why am I an artist? Because I don't think I chose it." He talks with host Gianofer Fields about how his life experiences have led to the recurring themes of identity, mas…
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Send us a Text Belgian-Congolese photographer Léonard Pongo trained as a journalist but soon realized the images he wanted to make went beyond mere documentation. Host Gianofer Fields talks with Pongo about his series, The Uncanny, his family's role in his art, and his choice to work in black and white. Pongo's book The Uncanny is now available. Me…
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields talks with Ugandan visual artist Immy Mali about Virtually Mine, a mobile, sculptural work drawn from text messages between the artist and her then-fiancé, now-husband. Mali talks about the mental pictures of each other we create when we're apart and why glass was the ideal material to represent qualities of thei…
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Send us a Text Chazen Registrar Andrea Selbig thinks about more than how works of art will look in the galleries. Using an example from the Insistent Presence exhibition, Selbig talks with host Gianofer Fields about the considerations that go into acquiring art at a collecting and teaching museum. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the Un…
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Insistent Presence: Margaret Nagawa, Part 1
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Send us a Text Guest curator Margaret Nagawa and host Gianofer Fields discuss the Insistent Presence exhibition, touching on the challenges of classifying African art, colonization, commodification, the relationship between artist and culture, and much more. Above all, Nagawa says, "It's important that we walk through the doors of the Chazen Museum…
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Send us a Text What do we mean when we say "African art"? How did these works come to be here? Who decides, and why? Chazen Director Amy Gilman and Host Gianofer Fields engage with these questions and more as they discuss the opening of Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about…
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Send us a Text Chazen Director Amy Gilman sets up Season 2 of Meet Me at the Chazen, which focuses on Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, the largest collecting museum in the Big Ten. As we report what’s happ…
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re:mancipation: The end is just the beginning
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Send us a Text As the re:mancipation exhibition draws to a close, host Gianofer Fields talks with Chazen Director Amy Gilman about how the groundbreaking project changed the museum and its staff and how it will live on. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, the largest collecting mu…
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Send us a Text As they take part in a re:mancipation cape-making workshop, host Gianofer Fields talks to community members and artist/activist Wildcat Ebony Brown about what freedom means to them. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, the largest collecting museum in the Big Ten. As…
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Oklads and Black icons: Layers of meaning
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Send us a Text In this week's episode of Meet Me at the Chazen, host Gianofer Fields talks with re:mancipation artists who designed oklads, an Eastern European religious art form, to venerate Black icons of Wisconsin. As they worked on an oklad for Dr. James Cameron, the late civil rights leader who survived a lynching as a youth, they felt the spi…
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Camille Friend: Black hair in white marble
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Send us a Text Oscar-nominated hair stylist Camille Friend educated the artisans at Quarra Stone on the nuances of Black hair as they finished Sanford Biggers's sculpture, Lifting the Veil, which features Frederick Douglass and his iconic mane. Host Gianofer Fields was there to capture the sights and sounds. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about…
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields visits a Wisconsin Historical Society archive with artisans from Quarra Stone to research the kinds of garments that would have been worn by Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, the largest collecting museu…
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Lynore Routte and Kirstin Pires: The fabric of family
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields was interviewing textile artist Lynore Routte when Kirstin Pires, the Chazen's communications manager, came by with an incredibly moving gift. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, the largest collecting museum in the Big Ten. As we report what’s …
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Monuments Reimagined: Contemporary Artists as Changemakers Panel
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Send us a Text In November 2022, Gianofer Fields hosted a panel discussion on how artists can disrupt the public art narrative and forge new paths toward re-memorializing our shared past. The panelists were Naima Murphy Salcido, former Director of Partnerships at Monument Lab; Professor Faisal Abdu’Allah, Chazen Family Distinguished Chair in Art, U…
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Send us a Text When UW–Madison Professor of Dance Chris Walker first saw Emancipation Group, he couldn't stop thinking about a particular detail of the troubling sculpture. Walker talks with host Gianofer Fields about how he translated his reaction into a dance piece. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’…
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Send us a Text Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Keyon Harrold was at the Chazen providing a response for re:mancipation when news broke about a racially charged incident involving his son. Host Gianofer Fields talks with Harrold about how it affected his family and what it says about the state of race relations in the United Sates. Meet Me at the Cha…
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Kirk Mendoza: A niche between engineering and art
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields talks with UW-Madison engineering graduate Kirk Mendoza, who provided the technology to turn concepts into concrete things for the re:mancipation project. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, the largest collecting museum in the Big Ten. As we re…
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields talks with DJ, archivist, and music scholar Rich Medina about revisionist history, power, the universality of music, and what re:mancipation means to him. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, the largest collecting museum in the Big Ten. As we re…
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Guy and Lynore Routté: Individuals together
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields talks with a brother-sister duo at the heart of the re:mancipation project: music producer/MASK Consortium member Guy Routté, and fiber artist Lynore Routté. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, the largest collecting museum in the Big Ten. As we…
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Wildcat Ebony Brown: Art, activism, and the Wide Awakes
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields talks with artist and activist Wildcat Ebony Brown about art, spirituality, the revived Wide Awakes movement, and how it all connects with the re:mancipation project. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, the largest collecting museum in the Big T…
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Send us a Text Exhibition and Collection Project Manager Kate Wanberg talks with host Gianofer Fields about how the re:mancipation project led the Chazen to break out of its standard approach to exhibitions by sharing control with collaborators. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art,…
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields puts you at the center of re:mancipation's opening reception, where DJ Rich Medina, rapper Pharoahe Monch, Sanford Biggers, Chazen Director Amy Gilman, and members of the audience came together to reflect, celebrate, and open the exhibition. (Note: this episode contains explicit language.) Meet Me at the Chazen i…
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields talks with Eddie Gajadar, chief operating officer of MASK Consortium, about the re:mancipation project’s small-scale origins, key milestones in its expansion, and his hopes for its future. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, the largest collecti…
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Send us a Text Host Gianofer Fields speaks with MASK Consortium creative director Mark Hines about how he helps artist Sanford Biggers execute his artistic vision and the deeply emotional experience of working with the challenging subject matter of Emancipation Group. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’…
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Send us a Text The seeds of re:mancipation were planted at the closing of BAM!, a 2019 Sanford Biggers exhibition at the Chazen. Chazen Head of Education Candie Waterloo talks with host Gianofer Fields about how a dinner conversation led to an ambitious two-year collaboration and what made her pay attention to an artwork she had ignored. Meet Me at…
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Janine Yorimoto Boldt: What is re:mancipation?
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Send us a Text From its earliest days, viewers saw problems with Thomas Ball's Emancipation Group sculpture. Janine Yorimoto Boldt, the Chazen's associate curator of American art, discusses the sculpture's history, versions, iconography, and evolving interpretations with host Gianofer Fields. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the Univers…
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Send us a Text Meet Me at the Chazen Host Gianofer Fields talks to Sanford Biggers, the artist at the center of the re:mancipation exhibition, about process, collaboration, history and dialogue as media, and placing faith in the viewer. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, the larg…
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Send us a Text Chazen Museum of Art Director Amy Gilman talks about Emancipation Group, a problematic sculpture in the museum's collection, and the starting point for re:mancipation, an exhibit that was on view Feb. 4 through June 25, 2023 at the Chazen Museum of Art. Meet Me at the Chazen is a podcast about the the University of Wisconsin-Madison’…
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