Meet Me at the Chazen
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!
Episodes
40 episodes
The Archives: Feeding the Masses
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 staf...
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58:48
The Archive: Should It Stay or Should It Go?
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 th...
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30:59
Illuminating the Chazen's 'dark archive'
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 mater...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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35:25
The Chazen Archive: what is it?
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 ...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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38:27
Insistent Presence: Gabriella Hartlaub
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 ...
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Season 2
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Episode 14
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13:08
Insistent Presence: Erin Coron
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. Visi...
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Season 2
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Episode 13
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23:03
Insistent Presence: Katherine Alcauskas
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 sa...
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Season 2
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Episode 12
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14:32
Insistent Presence: Giulia Paoletti
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, t...
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Season 22
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Episode 11
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20:10
Insistent Presence: Margaret Nagawa, Part 3
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 Slima...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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38:36
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Insistent Presence: Moving 'Exodus'
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 th...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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22:58
Insistent Presence: Margaret Nagawa, Part 2
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 be...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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35:37
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Insistent Presence: Serubiri Moses
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 Kg...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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45:51
Insistent Presence: Nana Yaw Oduro
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 Giano...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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39:17
Insistent Presence: Léonard Pongo
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 ...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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48:17
Insistent Presence: Immy Mali
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 ...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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32:11
Insistent Presence: Andrea Selbig
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 ac...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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22:02
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Insistent Presence: Margaret Nagawa, Part 1
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, ...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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49:12
Insistent Presence: Amy Gilman
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...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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45:04
Insistent Presence: Introduction
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.
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Season 2
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Episode 0
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1:52
re:mancipation: The end is just the beginning
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.
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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44:19
Cape workshop: The freedom to create
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.
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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12:07
Oklads and Black icons: Layers of meaning
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 D...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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42:28
Camille Friend: Black hair in white marble
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 ...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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11:37
