Originally published December 18 2005
Art gallery jumps on podcasting bandwagon
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Victoria and Albert Museum has launched podcasts to guide and teach listeners about artwork. They are available to download for free, and you can listen to stories and facts relating to the Paintings Gallery.
The Victoria and Albert Museum has ventured into new territories for the museum world with the launch of podcasts -- mini audio-visual guides that can be downloaded and played on iPods, MP3 players or desktop computers -- as part of its Every Object Tells A Story (EOTAS) project.
"There are often audio guides for special exhibitions, but there tends to be a paucity of guides for existing collections," said Susan McFarland, Every Object Tells A Story Site Editor, "so this is a way to bring them to life."
Moreover, you don't have to be in the museum to hear the podcasts, which currently number six.
All you have to do is download them, for free, and you can listen to anecdotes relating to the Paintings Gallery at the V&A -- an artist-model love affair, a Victorian art collector or the exotic investments of a Pre-Raphaelite are all on offer.
The podcasts include an image of the paintings and there are two ways to access them.
If you use iTunes or have a Google account, you can download them by copying and pasting http://www.everyobject.net/web/data/podcasts/eotas_2.xml into the subscribe box.
For more information and detailed instructions, head to the website www.everyobject.net/interactive.
The stories are bite-sized accounts, like those gathered in the EOTAS online archive of people's stories about objects they treasure.
The podcasts, unlike the archived stories, are all personal stories by experts (so far).
"It's assistant curators, curators, researchers from the Courtauld -- and Nicola's a conservator," explained Susan.
In her podcast, conservator Nicola Costaras talks about her excitement when she discovered a rare panelmaker's mark on a 400-year-old painting by Adriaen Brouwer.
The Paintings Gallery is the first to be the subject of podcasts, but the idea will be taken elsewhere in time, funding allowing.
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