Meet Me at the Museum

Radio 4 Woman’s Hour host Jane Garvey takes fellow BBC and Fortunately... podcast presenter Fi Glover to her hometown to visit Tate Liverpool, where they explore the gallery’s impressive collection of modern and contemporary art. Inside they chat to staff about the role galleries play in challenging our understanding of the world, and talk with honesty and humour about their own responses to the work on show. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this special episode, comedian Russell Kane speaks to a variety of guests about how the lockdown has affected cultural venues across the UK and explores why museums matter more than ever. Alistair Hudson, director of the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester and Elinor Morgan, head of programme at MIMA in Middlesbrough, talk about the positive role museums can play in the community; writer and critic Olivia Laing examines the ways art can help during a crisis; and arts influencer Katy Hessel constructs an imaginary museum full of some of her favourite works of art. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Instagram influencer and host of The Great Women Artists podcast Katy Hessel visits the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in St Ives with her friend, the artist Unskilled Worker. While there, they explore the stunning garden and discover more about the life and work of one of the 20th century's most important artists. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Broadcaster Anneka Rice takes her friend, actor and writer Imogen Stubbs, to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, the former palatial holiday home of Queen Victoria, where they get to explore the house’s opulent interiors, reminisce about the time Anneka landed in a helicopter there for the 80s TV show Treasure Hunt, and find out more about Victoria and Albert’s distinctly progressive attitude toward parenting. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Comedian and podcaster Cariad Lloyd takes her mum Ruth along to the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, where the pair get to indulge their shared love of fashion, visit founder Zandra Rhodes’ exclusive penthouse suite, and sample the delights of the museum’s café. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Comedian Mae Martin takes friend and fellow comic Annie McGrath to the Freud Museum in north London, where they explore the home of the father of psychoanalysis and take a closer look at the life and work of his daughter and pioneer of child psychology, Anna Freud.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Actress and writer Beattie Edmondson takes her sister Freya to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for an afternoon of witchcraft and sorcery, where they find magical items in the museum’s collection and recall growing up in ‘mystical’ Devon.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Journalist and TV presenter Kirsty Wark takes illustrator Johanna Basford to V&A Dundee, where they explore the city’s newest cultural icon, tour a renovated Charles Rennie Mackintosh tearoom, and uncover the rich history and global influence of Scottish design. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Comedian Lucy Porter takes fellow comic Joe Wells along to The Mary Rose in Portsmouth, where they explore the 500-year-old Tudor warship, speak to one of the original divers on the project to raise the vessel from the seabed, and reflect on the role of modern museums in providing immersive learning experiences for visitors. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Author and broadcaster Emma Dabiri takes fellow writer Jesse Bernard along to Handel & Hendrix in London. It was home, first to the Baroque composer, and then two centuries later to the Sixties guitar legend. While inside, they uncover more about the private and public lives of these two very different musical pioneers, who both came to Britain from abroad and changed the cultural landscape of the times in which they lived. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.