Benaki Museum Podcast Interlude

I’m Pierson Brown, a student at American University. I am majoring in an interdisciplinary degree which combines communications,legal institutions, economics, and government. In addition, I am minoring in art history and pursuing an advanced leadership studies certificate. With the creative process, I am an associate podcast producer, focusing on curation, museum education, and sustainability.

Listening to Dr. Manginis discuss the role of Byzantine icons in influencing modern artists, especially in Greece, I was struck by idea of a particularly common theme in history: what’s old is new again. This rings especially true as days blur together during the covid-19 pandemic, but I think it can appear in surprising places as well. For example, thinking of how both Byzantine and modern artists wanted to create not something real in the physical sense, but something true to the human experience. As both participants agree, the goal here is to explain how we feel the world, not how we see it. Although my studies have focused particularly on American and Western European artists, I found similarities between this idea and the abstract expressionist artists of the 1950s and 60s. Art in this sense is not something that simply records history, but records a feeling and is able to incite that feeling each time it is viewed.

As Dr. Maginis continues to discuss Greek history, the Benaki’s collection, and the role of museums in the present day, I found this theme to pop up again and again. Experiencing art physically in a museum space, beyond online, is a full body experience that goes beyond what a book or description can provide. It evokes emotion and inspires creativity in all fields, sparking innovation and leading change.