90 episodes

Ever feel overwhelmed when you visit a museum? Discover a better way to connect with art! Join lifelong art lover and museum fan Karen Jackson as she shares what she sees and discovers while looking at a work of art for minutes instead of the usual 6-10 seconds. Each episode opens with a unique experience — a short, vivid description of a work from one of Washington DC's world-class museums. Then you’ll find out the history, mystery or controversy behind the work or the artist! Episodes are less than 15 minutes.

No jargon, just an easy-going, sometimes irreverent look at art and the very human stories behind it. The descriptions also provide blind or visually impaired listeners a way to enjoy art.

A Long Look Podcast Karen Jackson

    • Arts
    • 5.0 • 12 Ratings

Ever feel overwhelmed when you visit a museum? Discover a better way to connect with art! Join lifelong art lover and museum fan Karen Jackson as she shares what she sees and discovers while looking at a work of art for minutes instead of the usual 6-10 seconds. Each episode opens with a unique experience — a short, vivid description of a work from one of Washington DC's world-class museums. Then you’ll find out the history, mystery or controversy behind the work or the artist! Episodes are less than 15 minutes.

No jargon, just an easy-going, sometimes irreverent look at art and the very human stories behind it. The descriptions also provide blind or visually impaired listeners a way to enjoy art.

    American Art Finale

    American Art Finale

    Well, we’ve reached the end of our brief tour of the Smithsonian American Art Museum! I hope you’ve enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun getting to share this unique place with you and introduce you to some artists you might not have heard of. 

    I’ll tell you about the two-for-one experience of visiting the museum and its hidden gems. And I have...thoughts...about the stories it tells.

    SHOW NOTES (TRANSCRIPT BELOW)

    “A Long Look” themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and “At the Cafe with You” by Onion All Stars https://pixabay.com/users/onion_all_stars-33331904/

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
    https://americanart.si.edu/

    Luce Foundation Center for American Art
    https://americanart.si.edu/visit/saam/luce

    Lunder Conservation Center
    https://americanart.si.edu/art/conservation

    National Portrait Gallery
    https://npg.si.edu/
    Transcript available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/american-art-finale

    • 2 min
    Floating Clouds by Hisako Hibi

    Floating Clouds by Hisako Hibi

    In today’s episode we look at “Floating Clouds” by Hisako Hibi, one of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated in prison camps on the West Coast during WWII. Paintings like this served as the only visual record of life in the camps as well as a way for prisoners to deal with the harsh conditions.

    We’ll find out how she and her family were able to build a new life after the war and how she persevered through her art and with the help of fellow immigrants. 

    SHOW NOTES 
    “A Long Look” themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and “At the Cafe with You” by Onion All Stars https://pixabay.com/users/onion_all_stars-33331904/

    EPISODE MUSIC
    “Timeless One” by Solas Composer
    https://soundcloud.com/solas_composer/timeless-one

    “Eastern Thought” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
    Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
    https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html

    Artwork information
    Hisako Hibi https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/floating-clouds-119617

    Detention camp paintings
    https://janm.emuseum.com/groups/hisako-hibi-collection/results

    Hisako Hibi info
    https://americanart.si.edu/artist/hisako-hibi-33445

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hisako_Hibi

    https://americanart.si.edu/blog/japanese-american-artists-hibi

    https://www.becomingvisible.si.edu/stories/hisako-hibi

    https://womenshistory.si.edu/blog/hisako-hibis-work-artist-was-almost-lost

    Exhibition info
    Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo


    Transcript available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/floating-clouds
     

    • 9 min
    Extended Ep: Happy Anniversary, Impressionism!

    Extended Ep: Happy Anniversary, Impressionism!

    Just in time for your Memorial Day travels, here’s an extended episode celebrating the anniversary of Impressionism! We take another look at three of the originals: Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot. Her painting “The Mother and Sister of the Artist” is featured in the upcoming blockbuster “Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment” opening Sept. 8 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Find out more on their site.

    SHOW NOTES
    Opening theme: "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs

    Episode Music:
    OFFENBACH CAN-CAN by Light Symphony Orchestra; Offenbach
    https://archive.org/details/78_offenbach-can-can_light-symphony-orchestra-offenbach_gbia0309744b

    EPISODES 
    Monet--Grainstack
    Show notes and transcript
    https://alonglookpodcast.com/grainstack/

    Pissarro--Place du Carrousel
    Show notes and transcript
    https://alonglookpodcast.com/place-du-carrousel-by-camille-pissarro/

    Morisot--Mother and Sister of the Artist
    Show notes and transcript
    https://alonglookpodcast.com/the-mother-and-sister-of-the-artist-by-berthe-morisot/

    EXHIBITIONS
    “Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment” National Gallery of Art (Sept 8-Jan. 19)
    https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2024/paris-1874-impressionist-moment.html

    “Mary Cassatt at Work” Philadelphia Museum of Art (May 18-Sept. 8)
    https://press.philamuseum.org/mary-cassatt-at-work/

    “The Impressionist Revolution from Monet to Matisse” Dallas Museum of Art (thru Nov. 3)
    https://impressionistrevolution.dma.org/p/1

    SUGGESTED READING
    “Luncheon of the Boating Party” by Susan Vreeland
    https://bookshop.org/p/books/luncheon-of-the-boating-party-susan-vreeland/11716075?ean=9780143113522
    Transcript is available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/impressionism

    • 28 min
    The South Ledges, Appledore by Childe Hassam

    The South Ledges, Appledore by Childe Hassam

    It’s starting to get warm out so the seaside’s on my mind! In the latest episode we visit Appledore on the Isles of Shoals with American painter Childe Hassam. This group of islands off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine was a long-time vacation fave for this Boston artist. 

    We’ll find out how he fused the color and energy of artists like Claude Monet and Camille Pissaro with uniquely American settings like this stunning rocky New England shoreline. And the ruckus he and some of his fellow painters started to create a brand-new kind of American art!
    Transcript is available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/appledore
     

    • 11 min
    Man With the Cat by Cecilia Beaux

    Man With the Cat by Cecilia Beaux

    Henry Sturgis Drinker and Cecilia Beaux had a complicated history but that didn’t get in the way of Cecilia making him the subject of one of her best portraits.

    In today’s episode, we’ll find out how Henry was just one example of the lengths this renowned Gilded Age artist went to pursue her dream of an art career. And how her talent, hard work--and the help of a good friend--got her started.
     
    SHOW NOTES
    “A Long Look” themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and “At the Cafe with You” by Onion All Stars https://pixabay.com/users/onion_all_stars-33331904/
     
    Episode music
    “Preludes, Op. 28 - No. 21 'Sunday'” by Frédéric Chopin
    Courtesy of the European Archive and musopen.org
    https://musopen.org/music/82-preludes-op-28/
     
    “Preludes, Op. 28 - No. 17 'Scene on the Place de Notre-Dame'” by Frédéric Chopin
    Performed by Ivan Ilic. Courtesy of musopen.org
    https://musopen.org/music/82-preludes-op-28/
     
    “String Quartet no. 12 in F major 'American', Op. 96” by Antonín Dvořák.
    Courtesy of the European Archive and musopen.org
    https://musopen.org/music/4887-string-quartet-no-12-in-f-major-american-op-96/
     
    Artwork information
    https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/man-cat-henry-sturgis-drinker-1635
     
    Les Dernier Jours d’Enfance
    https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/item/les-derniers-jours-d-enfance
     
    Cecilia bio
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilia_Beaux#cite_ref-16
     
    “Cecilia Beaux: A Modern Painter in the Gilded Age” by Alice A. Carter.
    https://archive.org/details/ceciliabeauxmode0000cart
     
    “Cecilia Beaux: American Figure Painter” by Sylvia Yount. 
    https://archive.org/details/ceciliabeauxamer00beau
     
    Henry Sturgis Drinker
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Sturgis_Drinker
     
    Transcript is available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/cecilia-beaux/

    • 10 min
    Confrontation by Hughie Lee-Smith

    Confrontation by Hughie Lee-Smith

    Putting ordinary people in odd, unsettling surroundings was the specialty of Hughie Lee-Smith. In today’s episode we look at his “Confrontation” from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. 

    We’’ll find out how an encounter with Italian Surrealism and a forbidden childhood carnival forged a visual language he used to depict universal feelings of loneliness, separation, and alienation in post-war America.

    SHOW NOTES

    “A Long Look” themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and “At the Cafe with You” by Onion All Stars https://pixabay.com/users/onion_all_stars-33331904/

    Episode music:
    “Passing Fields” by Quantum Jazz
    Courtesy of Free music Archive (CC BY-SA) https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Quantum_Jazz/End_of_Line/05_-_Quantum_Jazz_-_Passing_Fields/

    “Ghost Carousel” by LAURENT BUCZEK
    Courtesy of Pixabay https://pixabay.com/music/build-up-scenes-ghost-carousel-155303/

    “Between Worlds” by Tobias Webster (CC-BY)
    http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/tobias_weber/56664

    "Shades of Spring" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
    https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html
    Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Artwork information 
    https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/confrontation-78130

    Artist information
    Biography
    Hughie Lee-Smith by Leslie King-Hammond and Aiden Faust. San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2010.

    Hughie Lee-Smith papers, c 1890-2007, bulk 1931-1999. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

    https://americanart.si.edu/artist/hughie-lee-smith-6317

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughie_Lee-Smith

    https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/04/nyregion/art-a-painter-finally-gets-his-due.html

    https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/12/nyregion/art-review-a-painter-s-evolution-visual-and-political.html
    Transcript available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/confrontation

    • 12 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
12 Ratings

12 Ratings

Ava K. S ,

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️love you Karen

This podcast is incredible! I was so happy to see how it works! I can see the paintings without even looking at them! -Ava🫶🏻

Innkeeper Freddie ,

Great Podcast! Karen is AMAZING!!

This podcast is big with the seeing impaired...and for a reason. Karen does an AMAZING job of describing pieces in the gallery. :-)

FreedomPodcasting ,

Great work Karen!

Great work on the podcast. :)

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