"Art Restart" podcast focuses on artists' response to the events of the past year

Along with a new year (and in response to the previous one), comes a new iteration of the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts' podcast, "Art Restart" (formerly "Artist As Leader"). This season will shift the podcast's focus in response to the world-altering events of 2020 and their impact on the arts industry — and the way its leaders have adapted and envision adaptations to those changes.

The first episode of "Art Restart," an interview with theatre director Seema Sueko, will be available to stream on your favorite podcast platform on Monday, January 11, with new episodes available every other Monday. To kick off the new podcast, a live virtual salon, "Hindsight 2020," is scheduled for Thursday, January 14.

Register for hindsight 2020

Radical reinvention

"In 'Art Restart,' we’re turning our attention to how the seismic events of the 2020—from the pandemic to the overdue reckoning on race and equity—have laid bare extant systemic problems in all the arts," says podcast producer and co-host Pier Carlo Talenti. "And we’re encouraging radical reinvention."

Talenti and co-host Rob Kramer are asking "Art Restart" artist-leader guests to harness their imagination and ingenuity to shred the status quo and dream up a new way of bringing their art to viewers and audiences. At the heart of these interviews will be two questions: “What did 2020 make clear most needs to be reinvented in your field?” and “Would you please envision a reinvention?”

Asking their subjects to consider innovation within the arts world is not entirely a departure from the first season of the "Artist As Leader" podcast. With guests like playwright Larissa FastHorse, artist Yazmany Arboleda, musician Rhiannon Giddens and choreographer Jonah Bokaer, the intersection of radical creativity and leadership has always been at the forefront of the podcast.

"One thing that has been evident from the outset of the Kenan Institute podcast series is the resilience and creative problem-solving with which artist-leaders approach their roles, both within their local communities and the world at large," says Kenan Institute Interim Executive Director Lynda Summerlin Lotich. "Art Restart feels like a timely and fitting response to the events of the past year and the challenges these artists are facing every day."

Hindsight 2020, a virtual salon

The "Art Restart" podcast will kick off with "Hindsight 2020," a virtual salon, with guests Yazmany Arboleda, Murielle Elizéon and Tommy Noonan, Tito Muñoz and April Parker. These artist-leaders will join Sueko as moderator for a discussion of what needs to be reinvented in their artistic fields and how they would go about reinventing it.

"Hindsight 2020" will be held virtually Thursday, January 14 at 7:30 p.m. EST and is free to the public. Registration is required.

Register Here

Listen now

The entire "Artist As Leader" podcast series is available to listen to any time on your favorite platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, iHeart Radio and Pandora.

Or visit the Kenan Institute's "Artist As Leader" page to listen to full episodes, view podcast transcripts and artist bios, and read earlier conversations in the series. 

New episodes of "Art Restart" will be available on the podcast platforms listed above as they're published, with full episodes, transcripts and bios also available on the "Art Restart" page.

As the year and the "Art Restart" podcast unfold, Talenti is hopeful for the outcome of these new and frank discussions. "This past traumatizing year should not be merely a hiatus from business as usual; it presents an opportunity for rebirth," Talenti says. "Our hope is that by the end of 2021, we will have gathered a galvanizing to-do list for artists of all stripes to lead their respective fields in completely new directions."