To help lift us all during these long, dark days of winter—and of course, COVID-19, The Met is launching two new podcasts that explore art’s ability to connect, fascinate, and inspire us. The first, Frame of Mind: An Art & Wellness Podcast, features weekly episodes that begin launching today. The series presents diverse personal accounts of how art connects to individual and communal well-being. The second podcast, Immaterial, will be released later this spring and explore how the materials found in art have deep cultural resonance with communities, families, traditions, and even our passions. As one of the oldest and most intimate forms of storytelling, audio creates vivid ideas in our minds and helps form strong memories. These two podcasts are an exploration of how, even if you can’t be in front of an object, you can connect with what art has to offer.
There are obstacles to people visiting museums in person—some find art inaccessible, whether its presentation, scholarship, interpretation, and even physical buildings. These podcasts are but one effort to meet some of these challenges and connect people to art—no matter where they’re coming from or where they are. The series highlights intimate and unexpected stories, including voices of those who might not traditionally be considered experts. What happens when we hear poignant, personal stories, well told? Hopefully, it connects us with the speakers, with their lived experiences, and with ourselves. This extends beyond just discussing art, it’s about dialogue between different areas of our lives and the potential for museums to be conveners of shared humanity.
Frame of Mind shares uplifting stories about how art supports well-being, especially during times of struggle and stress. Presently, people are dealing with anxiety, trauma, and feeling alone, making health and well-being an important topic for all of us. Wellness is also commercialized: media channels are marketing us with all kinds of apps and resources for mindfulness. What works in the virtual arena? What do we benefit from experiencing together? And how do we fit wellness into our everyday lives?
Although museums may not immediately be associated with mental health and healing, this podcast makes clear that art is ripe to be used this way. Not only can museums be intimidating, but art is often mistakenly seen as inessential. We believe art at The Met—from all parts of the globe and spanning over five thousand years of history—holds an important key to well-being, namely the expression of human emotion and feeling. By inviting people in and connecting them to our collection, we aim to expand access to art as a tool for finding meaning, solace, and inspiration.
In choosing our guests, we opened the mic to diverse communities in order to uplift their stories. Listeners will hear from artists, activists, a nurse, a doctor, a composer, a horticulturalist, and a barber, among others. An epidemiologist describes how, during one very challenging year, sending his sister one hundred art postcards featuring artworks at The Met helped the two of them cope and forge an even deeper relationship. Our guests also share frank opinions about how the Museum can better support well-being in their communities, such as two sisters, one of whom uses a wheelchair, who describe the importance of accessibility to their family.
Right now, the world’s reckoning. This podcast doesn’t solve all the challenges facing us, let alone at The Met. But by listening and learning, the Museum can respond in some small way to the current moment: social justice movements, the pandemic, and the struggles we face as individuals, as communities, and as a planet. The Museum strives to be of service and generous with our resources. Frame of Mind is a means of expanding access; not just to the physical artworks inside and to museum scholarship, but to multiple interpretations and perspectives.
There are many more artworks to discuss, and infinite stories to tell—far more than could fit in one podcast. We also plan to share more connections to the collection and resources on wellness, such as articles in our online magazine, Perspectives, and presentations in our Healing Arts symposium. We believe art can support our health and well-being at all stages of life, and we’re excited to grow museums as resources for wellness, connection, and creativity for everybody.
Please listen, and let us know what you think.
Listen to the first Episode of Frame of Mind
Supported by
and Dasha Zhukova Niarchos.
Both podcasts were created and produced by The Met in collaboration with Goat Rodeo (Frame of Mind) and Magnificent Noise (Immaterial). They are being distributed by PRX.
