Behind the Scenes at the Museum Tiffany Jenkins

The British Empire and Us: a civilised disagreement with Nigel Biggar and James Heartfield 
Over the last five to ten years, factious arguments about the British empire, about toppling the monuments that mark it, about making reparations for it, and about to teach it in schools, have swept through our public discourse. This is a relatively new thing. We didn’t used to talk about the British empire so much and when we did, it was in a more positive and nostalgic light. Today there is a daily drip drip of the wrongs of empire.
In this episode, Tiffany is joined by ethicist Nigel Biggar,   the author of Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, and James Heartfield author of Britain's Empires: A History - 1600-2020 for a discussion about the rights and wrongs of empire. 
Biggar aims to set the record straight on empire, to defend it, and to show why not every critique is right. Heartfield is an anti-imperialist who has long condemned empire but finds himself surprised and disquieted to have won the argument. 
They examine what the British empire was in its different iterations; ask whether is was racist and to what extent violence was essential part of it. (For this part they refer to Caroline Elkin's superb Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire which argues that it was); reflect on the role of history and whether it can and should be moral, and, finally, - this is a longer than usual episode - discuss why the turn towards seeing everything in the past is not as radical as it first appears.

Tiffany Jenkins interviews the anthropologist Adam Kuper about his new book, The Museum of Other People: From Colonial Exhibitions to Cosmopolitan Exhibitions.
Adam talks about the history of anthropology museums and the crisis in which they find themselves today. They discuss the collections of human remains, and objects that were taken in imperial wars. They talk about the Benin Bronzes and the problems with the drive to return them in the present moment.
Adam Kuper was most recently Centennial Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and a visiting professor at Boston University. A Fellow of the British Academy and a recipient of the Huxley Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Kuper has appeared many times on BBC TV and radio and he has reviewed regularly for the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Wall Street Journal. Read more about him and The Museum of Other People in this THES interview https://www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/adam-kuper-insiders-understanding-not-always-deeper-experts
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Sir Peter Bazalgette has had a long and productive career in the arts. He is currently non-executive chairman of ITV, where we meet for a wide-ranging conversation. He has been Chairman of English National Opera and Chair of Arts Council England (2012 until 2016). He is Chair of the the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, and author of The Empathy Instinct: How to Create a More Civil Society (2017).
We talk about the future of the BBC (he is one of the most influential men in broadcasting), arts funding and sponsorship in an age of moral purity, making a case for the arts to government, repatriation of artefacts, the role of art post Brexit, and art in age of the internet. 
► MUSIC
Signature tune: Nick Vander Black Kopal - Galaxy II 
► PICTURES 
Pictures are available on Instagram and Twitter account: @behindthemuseum
►  CREDITS 
This episode of Behind the Scenes at the Museum was written and presented by Tiffany Jenkins, audio recording was by Nicky Barranger. Jac Phillimore was the producer.

 
Censorship of the arts is on the increase: both that imposed from above, by the state, but also from below, with artists calling for works to be taken down from display. This episode of Behind the Scenes of the Museum brings together three experts – Julia Farrington, Associate Arts Producer at Index on Censorship, artists mentor Manick Govinda, and the art critic JJ Charlesworth – to discuss the significant cases, and analyse what is going on: what is new (as compared to the old style Mary Whitehouse kind of censorship); why do institutions capitulate so easily to complaints; and what is to be done.  
► PANEL 
Julia Farrington, Associate Arts Producer,  Index on Censorship. Twitter: @IndexCensorship
Manick Govinda, Arts consultant and mentor. Twitter: @manick62
JJ Charlesworth, Critic, Art critic, senior editor ArtReview. Twitter: @jjcharlesworth
►  CASES DISCUSSED 
1.   Homegrown: commissioned by the National Youth Theatre 
See also, Channel 4 news report, with an interview with the director Nadia Latif 
2. Isis Threaten Sylvania , the Mall Galleries
3. Saatchi Gallery covers two paintings by an artist known as SKU 
4. Drill music removed from You Tube
See also, Gang members banned from making Drill music 
5. Brett Bailey’s, Exhibit B 
Petition: 'Withdraw the racist Exhibition "Exhibit B - The Human Zoo" from showing at the Barbican from 23rd-27th September 2014'
See also, this news report & discussion on BBC1 Sunday Morning Live, from 28 Sept 2014.
Louise Jeffries from the Barbican on Radio 4's Front Row on why and how the Barbican cancelled Exhibit B. 
6. Protests over Dana Schutz's portrait of Emmett Till at the Whitney Biennial 
 ► READ MORE
Are we entering a new age of artistic censorship?  Tiffany Jenkins New Republic 
Other cases, including those tackled by Julia Farrington & examples of institutional training to deal with sensitive subjects
How the Dana Schutz Controversy—and a Year of Reckoning—Have Changed Museums Forever, Julia Halperin
► MUSIC 
Signature tune: Nick Vander Black Kopal - Galaxy II 
► PICTURES 
Pictures of the artwork and clips of news reports are available on Instagram and Twitter account: @behindthemuseum
►  CREDITS 
This episode of Behind the Scenes at the Museum was written and presented by Tiffany Jenkins and produced by Jac Phillimore.
 

 
Tiffany visits the Tenement Museum in New York with its President, Kevin Jennings. Located at 97 and 103 Orchard Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the museum is formed from two historical tenement buildings, which were home to an estimated 15,000 immigrants from over 20 nations, between 1863 and 2011.
Starting in 97 Orchard street, they discuss the aims of the Tenement Museum: is it political?; does and should the museum take sides?; the history of immigration policy; the difficulties in talking about immigration today — when society is so divided and issue so emotional — and the importance of doing so.
Kevin tells us about the families who lived in these tenements: Nathalie and Julius Gumpertz who were East Prussian immigrants, who lived there in the 1870s. In 1874, after the Panic of 1873, a major economic depression, Julius left for work never to return, leaving Nathalie alone with four young children. We hear about Adolfo and Rosaria Baldizzi, who came from Sicily. Rosario arrived undocumented and illegally. She would eventually become a legal citizen of the United States. 
Moving on to 103 Orchard street, we hear about Kalman and Regina Epstein, who were Holocaust survivors, and among the first World War II refugees to be allowed into the United States, and their daughter Bella; whose memories helped decorate and furnish the apartment. Taking us up to the recent past, Tiffany and Kevin visit the old apartment of the Wong family. Mrs. Wong, who was from Southern China, arrived in New York from Hong Kong in 1965 with her two daughters, Yat Ping and Alison, after the Hart Cellar Act, which allowed for increased Asian immigration. Mrs Wong worked in the garment industry and in 1973 she became a citizen of the United States.  
 
► LINKS 
The Tenement Museum 
Nathalie and Julius Gumpertz
Adolfo and Rosaria Baldizzi
Kalman and Regina and Bella Epstein
Mrs Wong and her family 
 
 ► MUSIC 
1) Signature music , Nick Vander - Black Kopel - Galaxy II
2) Fig Leaf Times Two, Kevin MacLeod
3) After the Ball is Over, Gerald Adams & The Variety Singers
4) Brahms Symphony No.3 in F Maj: I. Allegro Con Brio, conducted by Willem Mengelberg
5) Frogs Leg Rag, James Scott (freemusicarchive.org)
6) Victor Orchestra, Glow Worm (1908)
7) Guido Gialdini whistling Luigi Arditi's The Kiss (1908), public.domain domain.org 
8) Tim Hart - Royalty Free Music Large Collection - Track 45 - No Words
 
► PICTURES 
 Pictures of the street, apartments, museum, and the families are on our Instagram and Twitter account: @behindthemuseum
►  CREDITS 
This episode of Behind the Scenes at the Museum was written and presented by Tiffany Jenkins, recorded by Jared Arnold, and produced by Jac Phillimore.
Twitter: @BehindtheMuseum 
Instagram: @BehindtheMuseum 
 
 

Tiffany Jenkins goes to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge to talk to its director Luke Syson, art historian Jill Burke and Michael Savage (aka Grumpy Art Historian) about Titian’s Tarquin and Lucretia, and rehanging paintings in the age of #MeToo. 
 ► ART WORK DISCUSSED 
John William Waterhouse’s Hylas and the Nymphs 
Raphael’s Lucretia
Sandro Botticelli's The Story of Lucretia 
Titian’s Tarquin and Lucretia
Titian's Rape of Europa 
Nicholas Poussin 
I Modi - The Sixteen Pleasures 
 ►  PARTICIPANTS
Luke Syson Instagram: Luke Syson
Jill Burke Twitter: @jill_burke
Michael Savage Twitter: @GrumpyArt
Fitzwilliam Museum Twitter: @FitzMuseum_UK
  ► READ MORE 
On the decision to temporarily remove John William Waterhouse’s Hylas and the Nymphs
Jill Burke on The Power of Sexual Assault in Titian’s Tarquin and Lucretia
Prof Mary Beard on Lucretia and the politics of sexual assault 
► MUSIC 
Signature tune: Nick Vander Black Kopal - Galaxy II 
A Himitsu, Track Name: "Reminisce" @ https://soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Original upload HERE -       Official "A Himitsu" YouTube Channel HERE 
License for commercial use: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...Music promoted by NCM https://goo.gl/fh3rEJ  
 ►  CREDITS 
This episode of Behind the Scenes at the Museum was written and presented by Tiffany Jenkins, recorded by Nicky Barranger, and produced by Jac Phillimore. 
Twitter: @BehindtheMuseum 
Instagram: @BehindtheMuseum