By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Venus Williams has created masterpiece moments on court.
Next month, Venus goes behind the mic for compelling conversations with artists, writers, and scholars.
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Former world No. 1 Venus will host a six-episode podcast series as part of Carnegie Museum of Art presents Widening the Lens: Photography, Ecology, and the Contemporary Landscape.
The podcast series hosted by Venus debuts on June 26.
The Carnegie Museum of Art initiative examines environmental history and change through the lens of the camera.
The project consists of an exhibition featuring nearly 100 works by 19 artists, on view from May 11, 2024, to January 12, 2025, in the museum’s Heinz Galleries, the Venus-hosted podcast premiering on June 26, 2024, an extensive suite of public programming, and a fully illustrated publication, offering visitors multiple entry points into the American landscape.
Four-time Olympic gold-medal champion Venus Williams is also an artist in her own right, who owns and operates her own interior design firm and apparel brand.
The partnership between the Museum and Williams came to fruition through "a mutual interest in increasing access to art, engaging new and diverse perspectives, and provoking discussion around the exhibition’s timely, critical themes," Carnegie Museum of Art said.
Williams, an avid collector of contemporary art with "a particular interest in promoting and preserving the legacies of artists of color, was drawn to the partnership as an opportunity to expand her knowledge of the photographic medium and engage a wide array of audiences who might not otherwise interact with a museum," the Carnegie Museum of Art said in its announcement.
Further details on the podcast, including the full list of participants, can be found at carnegieart.org/widening-the-lens/podcast. The Venus Williams-hosted podcast will be available for download on Amazon, Anchor, Apple, Google, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
“I’m honored to partner with Carnegie Museum of Art on Widening the Lens, a deeply meaningful project that integrates art, environment and intentional storytelling,” Venus Williams said. “The participating artists and thinkers you'll hear on the Widening the Lens podcast reflect diverse, global perspectives and a vast range of backgrounds and experiences; I am proud to help amplify their voices as they prompt us to consider new and alternative ways of relating to our landscapes through photography. "
Widening the Lens is the fourth iteration of the Hillman Photography Initiative, Carnegie Museum of Art’s ongoing series that invites audiences to experience new ideas about art and photography.
Here's the Carnegie Museum of Art's description of the project:
Arranged by four through lines that examine the past, present, and possible futures, Widening the Lens showcases artists and artworks that find alternative ways of engaging with the environment and potential paths forward to positively affect ecology and the landscape. Archive interrogates colonial legacies of classification and representation through artworks by A.K. Burns, Raven Chacon, David Hartt, Edra Soto, Dionne Lee, and Xaviera Simmons. Remembering explores nature as a memorial landscape charged with the complexity of human identity and relationships with work by David O. Alekhuogie, Melissa Catanese, Sky Hopinka, Mark Armijo McKnight, and Erin Jane Nelson. Pathfinding examines human adaptability, complicity, and paralysis in the environment with contributions by Sam Contis, Justine Kurland, Victoria Sambunaris, and Chanell Stone. Horizon considers environmental anxiety, anticipation, and possibility through the work of Cyprian Gaillard, Lucy Raven, Tomás Saraceno, and Fazal Sheikh.
For more details on programming and events, please visit carnegieart.org.
Photo credit: Laura Metzler