Research Guides: Artists' Writings and Interviews: Audio & Video

Audio & Video Resources at NYU

Search Strategies

Searching for an artist's name in Bobcat and then filtering by "audio" or "video" can be an effective way to locate interviews and other resources available at NYU.

Terms listed in the search strategies section, particularly "artists interviews", can also be used to find audio and video resources in Bobcat. A search for records with subjects containing "artists" and "documentary films" may also be fruitful, as many documentaries about artists include interviews with or clips of the artist.

Collections and Databases

Being an Artist: Artist Interviews with Art21
Publication Date: 2018
Published on the occasion of the nonprofit organization's 21st anniversary, this compendium of artist interviews captures the conversations that have taken place over the organization's history. Select images of the artists and their artwork, pulled from Art21's media library, illustrate the interviews.

Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) Educational Streaming This link opens in a new window
The Electronic Arts Intermix Educational Streaming online catalog provides access to full-length streaming videos for selected artists from EAI's full collection. EAI is a nonprofit arts organization whose core program is the distribution and preservation of a major collection of new and historical video works by artists, spanning from the mid-1960s to the present. Documentary footage and interviews with artists can also be found in this collection.
Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library This link opens in a new window
This collection contains interviews with artists, performers, and scholars from across the Americas, with a particular focus on Latin American performance artists. Artist profiles and many recorded performances are available to view as well.
Pidgeon Digital: Illustrated Talks by Architects This link opens in a new window
Pidgeon Digital: Illustrated Talks by Architects is a unique library of slideshows in which architects narrate design ideas and concepts that influenced their thinking about a particular building or space. Users can explore images of buildings while listening to artist and architect commentary. The collection was founded in 1979 by Monica Pidgeon (long-time editor of the influential magazine Architectural Design) so as to be able to hear the actual voices of the designers of buildings and listen to their ideas.

Online Audio & Video Resources

Videos

Many museums and universities (including NYU) host artist talks and interviews, which are recorded and later made freely available online. These talks may be related to exhibitions, or may center around a certain theme. Examples of such collections are listed below.

To find more collections of artist talks and interviews, try searching through the museum or school website of your choice. Video archives may be found under "Art and Artists", "Events", "Public Programming", or similarly named tabs.

The screenshot above shows clips of artist interviews available to watch on ICA Boston's website.

Artists at the Institute
The Institute of Fine Arts' artist lecture series.

Hirshhorn Artist Diaries
Contemporary international artists' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
ICA Boston Artist Interviews
These video and audio recordings include exhibition previews, artist interviews, studio visits, and talks between artists and curators.
LACMA Conversations with Artists
Short videos in which artists discuss their work, background, and inspirations. Many of the videos were produced in conjunction with artist retrospectives which were on view at the time.
LACMA Artists on Art
In this video series, artists discuss artwork from LACMA's collection that intrigues or inspires them.
Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Artist Project
The Artist Project is a series in which artists respond to artwork or galleries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Smithsonian American Art Museum Meet the Artist videos
Contemporary American artists discuss their work, often in conjunction with exhibitions of their artwork.
Whitney Museum of American Art videos
This page features videos of artist interviews made in conjunction with exhibitions, artists' responses to artwork in the Whitney collection, and recordings of public programs.

Podcasts

Art and Obsolescence Podcast
Art and Obsolescence features conversations with artists, collectors, and professionals shaping the past, present, and future of art and technology. The podcast is hosted by art conservator Ben Fino-Radin.
Art For Your Ear
Stories from contemporary artists before they're in the art history textbooks, as told to Danielle Krysa. The podcast covers why artists did certain things, what was going on in their personal lives, and behind-the-scenes details about other artists they knew and worked with.
Articulated: Dispatches from the Archives of American Art
This podcast explores important moments in the American art scene, including the New Deal arts programs, the AIDS crisis and queer activist art, the rise of digital art, and more. It features excerpts from oral history interviews from the collection of the Archives of American Art, along with commentary from scholars and curators.
The Conversation Art Podcast
LA-based artist Michael Shaw converses one on one and in groups with figures in the contemporary art world, including artists, dealers, curators, and collectors.
The Modern Art Notes Podcast
This hour-long program features interviews with artists, historians, authors, curators, and conservators. Host Tyler Green has produced weekly episodes since 2011.
Praxis Interview Magazine
Host and artist Brainard Carey conducts interviews with artists, musicians, curators, and academics in this Yale University Radio program. Each audio interview is accompanied by a written artist biography, as well as images of the artist and examples of their work.
Recording Artists
What was it like to be a woman making art during the feminist and civil rights movements? Host Helen Molesworth delves into the lives and careers of six women artists spanning several generations. Hear them describe, in their own words, their work, relationships, and feelings about the ongoing march of feminism. Contemporary artists and art historians join the conversation, offering their own perspectives on the recordings and exploring what it meant—and still means—to be a woman and an artist. This podcast is based on interviews from the 1960s and ’70s by Cindy Nemser and Barbara Rose, drawn from the archives of the Getty Research Institute.
Sound & Vision
Brian Alfred sits down with artists and musicians in galleries and their studios to discuss their process and inspiration in their creative life.

Online Oral History Collections

The screenshot above shows the participants in part one of the Getty's video entitled Oral History on Photography: Herb Randall, Ming Smith, Dawoud Bey, Adger Cowans, Herb Robinson.

Archives of American Art Oral History Interviews
The Smithsonian Archives of American Art has been collecting oral histories that chronicle the art scene in America since 1958. Researchers can search for individual artist interviews, or browse by collection, including the Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts Project and the Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project. The website includes digitized audio clips, and many full transcripts of interviews are available online as well. Explore the rest of the Archives of American Art website for digitized letters, papers, and other archival material from American artists.
Artists Documentation Program
In this collection, conservators interview artists and their close associates in order to gain a better understanding of their materials, working techniques, and intent for conservation of their works. Videos of these interviews are made available along with embedded transcripts.
The Getty Research Institute Oral Histories Collection
The Getty's Oral Histories collection includes online oral history videos, as well as records describing their available audio recordings and transcripts. Highlights from the collection include African American Art History Initiative interviews, and oral history resources that document modern and contemporary art in California.
Guggenheim Museum Archives Reel to Reel Collection
This archival collection from the Guggenheim includes artists talks and interviews, as well as lectures and radio shows that feature artists. Many of the artists talks correspond with exhibition programming. Digitized audio content is available for most items, but only some include transcripts.
Oral History Program in the Museum of Modern Art Archives
This collection features interviews with artists, as well as trustees, museum staff members, and others who have had a relationship with MoMA. Transcripts of most interviews are available online, along with some video clips. Artist interviews cover the role of the museum in the life of the artist and reactions to works in the museum's collection, as well as discussions of their processes, use of materials, and the larger context within which a particular work of art was made.