Art Restart Podcast & Salons

In the Art Restart podcast and salon series, the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts explores how creatives around the world are reinventing their fields and building a new landscape for the arts.

Select an interview below to listen or read a transcript of the interview, or enjoy listening on Apple, Spotify or your listening platform of choice. Captioned interviews are available on YouTube.

Ka'ila Farrell-Smith

For painter Ka'ila Farrell-Smith, the land on which she lives and works is the raw material for her art, both metaphorically and literally. In this episode of Art Restart, Ka'ila explains why she left the artistic hub of Portland to live in rural southern Oregon and describes how her activism and artistry have evolved hand in hand.

Rising Appalachia

Since early on in their careers, Leah and Chloe of Rising Appalachia have been advocates for and practitioners of the slow music movement, an ethos of touring and music-making that places sustainability, local engagement and creative control at the heart of their business. In this episode of Art Restart, the sisters discuss why this was the right time for a yearlong break, how they prepared for it and the ways in which they and their bandmates keep the slow music ethos at the heart of their artistic practice.

April Bey

Through her wildly multicolored and multitextured interdisciplinary work, April Bey loves to explore speculative realms. In this episode of Art Restart, April explains why and how she created her Equity in Collecting Program, and explains how her radical invitation to new collectors is changing not only the art-collecting culture but also her relationship with her fans as well as with her own art.

Sultana Isham

For New Orleans-based film composer Sultana Isham, plunging into research on her subject matter is as important as creating her score. In this episode of Art Restart, Sultana explains how she developed her musical skills hand-in-hand with her research practice and why heeding her heart and feeding her curiosity continue to open incredible new doors for her.

Zeke Peña

Zeke Peña is a Xicano cartoonist and illustrator who, for most of his professional life, has focused on the lives and stories of El Paso, TX, where he grew up and lived for decades. A self-taught artist with an undergraduate degree in art history from UT Austin, he has built a rich portfolio of varied works that, as he describes them, are "a mash-up of political cartoons, border rasquache and hip-hop culture." In this episode, he describes the evolution of his ambitious journalistic endeavor, "The River Project," how he's adapted to the latest moral book-banning crusade, and how he wishes for publishers to honor their writers' and illustrators' collaborative spirits.

Shayok Misha Chowdhury

One of the bona fide theatrical hits of 2023 was a play titled "Public Obscenities" by director-turned-playwright Shayok Misha Chowdhury. It opened at Soho Rep in Manhattan in January of 2023 to the kind of glowing reviews and audience responses a playwright can only dream of. In this episode, Misha details how he hewed to his vision for the play no matter its evolving demands and hints at a road map for struggling theaters and the artists who wish to create work for their stages.

‹‹
‹
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
›
››

Artist As Leader

Artist-leaders with diverse careers and experiences reflect on how the creative process has informed their leadership.

Eric Gilbert

Musician Eric Gilbert discusses how years of touring trained him to develop and curate his vision for Treefort Music Fest, a weeklong festival showcasing artists and community in Boise, Idaho.

Lily Yeh

Lily Yeh, founder of Barefoot Artists, discusses how listening closely to and following her inner voice led her down an unforeseen artistic path and a new understanding of home, community and belonging.

Pierce Freelon

Pierce Freelon, composer, musician, producer and filmmaker, reflects on the leadership legacy left him by his artist parents and his cultural ancestry, and how he's absorbed those lessons to forge his own path.

Explore All Conversations