The Object

Feb 28 2025 80 ep. 22 mins 265
The Object Podcast artwork

”The Object” podcast explores the surprising, true stories behind museum objects with wit and curiosity. An object’s view of us. Hosted by Tim Gihring, produced by the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

  Arts  History
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Encore episode: Yard Show: The World According to Joe

Feb 28 2025 25 mins  
The seventh season of The Object begins March 24! Today, an encore presentation of an episode about Joe Minter and the "yard show" artists of Alabama. Thirty-five years ago, Joe Minter received a vision. Soon, his half-acre property outside Birmingham, Alabama, began to fill with sculpture—reflections on everything from slavery to 9/11 to climate change—fashioned out of junk: c

Encore episode: Love Among the Ruins

Feb 14 2025 21 mins  
Season 7 of The Object starts March 24! Here, a special episode from the archives about Love and Art in capital letters. When the young Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani moves to Paris, in the early 1900s, he soon meets a very talented (and very married) Russian poet. What happens when Love and Art come together, as the rest of the world is falling apart? You can see one of Modiglia

The Object LIVE! Manet Touché!

Jan 30 2025 29 mins  
This first-ever live show of The Object podcast (recorded at the Minneapolis Institute of Art on January 23, 2025) features music and storytelling celebrating French painter Édouard Manet and his Impressionist friends and frenemies (yes you, Monet). Watch for more live shows coming soon! You can see one of Manet’s portraits, as discussed on the show, in the collection of the Min

Fly Me to the Sun: A Bonus New Year Episode

Jan 16 2025 14 mins  
Most of us know the Icarus myth, of the young man who soars too close to the sun—or at least we think we do. But there's more to the story. And at various times in history, the takeaway has changed. As a new year begins, it's worth revisiting the classic tale: how high, or how low, do you want to go? You can see several takes on the Icarus story in the collection of the Minneap

Cold Comfort: The Ghosts of Winters Past

Dec 23 2024 24 mins  
For our final episode of Season 6, it’s an ode to winter. A winter of frozen London rivers and snowy Japanese villages—the kind we rarely have anymore if we ever really did. A winter of art and literature, of pure and plentiful snow—a “wintry mix” we can all appreciate. A standout winter painting (and recent addition to Mia’s collection) is this Winter Landscape by th

Yes, We Can-Can: How the Moulin Rouge Made Us Modern

Nov 25 2024 26 mins  
When the Moulin Rouge opens in Paris, in 1889—a faux windmill spinning over the entrance, a two-story elephant opening to reveal an orchestra inside—the world is changing quickly. The first film comes out that same day. Electric lights are enlivening the night. The old Victorian morals are being challenged, perhaps nowhere moreso than at this new bohemian cabaret where rich and

Bonus episode: Talking Wanda Gág with Lizzi Ginsberg

Nov 08 2024 33 mins  
Lizzi Ginsberg is the Chicago-based writer and researcher who guest-hosted our recent episode on Wanda Gág, the Minnesota-raised artist who went on to fame and some fortune in New York writing and illustrating quirky, beloved books like "Millions of Cats." Here, Ginsberg shares what drew her to Gág and the charming, sometimes tragic story of a woman deliberately both be

A Woman Called Wanda

Oct 21 2024 21 mins  
Wanda Gág may be the talented, bob-sporting, fiercely independent, 1920s celebrity cat mom you didn't know you needed right now. Guest host Lizzi Ginsberg looks back at the author and illustrator of “Millions of Cats,” her surprising life and recent revival. You can see her charmingly inventive prints in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art here: https://collec

Finding Buddha: The Collector at the Top of the World

Sep 30 2024 28 mins  
In 1959, a couple of young women from New York find themselves in the Himalayas—an unlikely story of adventure, royal romance, and spiritual awakening that would eventually result in one of the greatest collections of Tibetan Buddhist art in the West. This episode, an experiment in sound and storytelling, explores the incredible convergence of myth and faith, vanished kingdoms an

Dog Days: What Our Pets Say About Us

Sep 03 2024 20 mins  
Art and dogs are like our shadows across time: whatever we're up to, whatever values we hold, eventually it all shows up in our art and our dogs. So what can we learn from looking at art about dogs—about our pets and ourselves? You can see "Your Dog," the giant sculpture mentioned in this episode, in the current exhibition "Domestic Idols" at Mia, and right h