A new limited-edition audio podcast, featuring conversations with influential artists and cultural leaders.
Museum of Truth & Lies is an audio podcast guiding you through a virtual museum that exists everywhere and nowhere. Enter a labyrinth of imaginary galleries to explore why truth-telling matters in museums. Hear artists and activists reflect on how museums grapple with the most pressing themes of our times. Its mission is to inspire the next generation of curators to be better truth-tellers and spur museums to sustain trust with more truth-seeking visitors. Participants give a refreshingly honest take on how museums can navigate culture wars and how to inspire the next generation of curators and truth-tellers from an anti-racist lens.
All seven podcast episodes have just launched alongside an online Muse-Zine: a playbook for truth-telling in museums, to empower the public to engage more with museums and revolutionise their critical thinking. Appealing to people who are curious about how global current affairs connect with museums and galleries and encourage them to visit. Each episode is sensory-led and has specially composed soundscapes evocative of an imaginary labyrinth of galleries.
Here is the trailer.
Episodes:
Haunted Library - Multidisciplinary artists Larry Achiampong and David Blandy divulge how they tackle the ghosts of colonial legacies using museum archives to create their anti-racist video works.
Imperial Loot Gallery - Subhadra Das, Writer of Uncivilised: Ten Lies that Made the West (2024), considers how museums are dealing with the challenge to honestly interpret object provenance linked to empire. She questions if museums lie by omission.
War Games Room - Visual Artist Peter Kennard, renowned for his political photomontage, zooms in on how museums depict war and conflict. He sheds light on the connections between art, activism and political censorship. This episode features contributions from Matt Kennard (Co-founder of Declassified), Ahmed Alnaouq (Palestinian journalist), and Harris Elliot (curator and artist).
Eco-Washing Laundrette - The co-directors of the Crab Museum explain how they blend humour, politics, and science to engage visitors. They critique the ethics of using fossil fuel sponsorship to fund exhibitions and galleries.
Changemaking Studio which features Tate Modern’s Director Emerita, Frances Morris, who appears alongside the Guerilla Girls (feminist artist collective in New York) who debate why museums are not neutral.
Tomorrow Zone - Dr Oonagh Murphy, Senior Lecturer in Digital Culture & Society at Goldsmith’s University., shares her visionary insights about how Artificial Intelligence is shaping the future of storytelling in museums. Can curators use AI to stop misinformation?
Listen to the Museum of Truth & Lies podcast
Read the Muse-Zine online
Further Information: Museum of Truth & Lies – COVALENT CREATIVE