Sunaura Taylor is an artist, writer, activist, academic and mother. Sunaura is the Assistant Professor in the Division of Society and Environment and the director of the Disabled Ecologies Lab at the University of California, Berkely. A skilled artist, her artworks have been exhibited at venues such as the CUE Art Foundation, a contemporary art space in New York City, the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum, education, and research complex and they are a part of the Berkeley Art Museum collection. Sunaura is also the author of Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation, which received the American Book Award. Her current book is, Disabled Ecologies: Lessons from a Wounded Desert and whilst it’s not a memoir, it is personal and political. She documents how residents organized one of the earliest and most successful environmental justice movements in the USA. Sunaura is a game changer, a global thinker, she brings together what environmental and disability movements can learn from one another. Her books reveal how disability and ableism shape our understanding of nature and environmental crisis. She uncovers networks of disability, both human and wild, that are created when ecosystems are corrupted and profoundly altered. Sunaura raises an important question we should all be asking in the name of shared justice, “What happened to us?” Not, what happened to you? This is someone with an incredible eye for detail, for whom painting is a love of seeing and whose political statements are also drawn from sharp observation, analysis and lived experience. Sunaura also has a critical understanding of curiosity cultivated in her alternative childhood education of being 'unschooled.'

Sunaura Taylor

Aquifer Losing Reach, Speculative Aquifers Series

Pen and Watercolor on Paper, apx 11 x 8’’, 2017-2020

Sunaura Taylor

Animals With Arthrogryposis

Oil on Canvas, 6’ x 9’ (72“ x 108”), 2009

Author Photo © Julius Schlosberg

Discover Sunaura Taylor: www.sunaurataylor.net/

Series Audio Editor - Joey Quan.

Series Music - Courtesy of Barry J. Gibb

Closed Captions are added to all audio interviews in this series.

Read only, text transcripts of every interview, news, reviews and your host, Paula Moore, are available here: www.canartsaveus.com

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Tonye Ekine is one of the top 40 British Rising Stars recognized by the Royal Society of British Artists. He is also recently back from the world renowned, Venice Biennale, where he was selected for a highly prestigious fellowship with the British Council. In its 60th anniversary year, the Venice Biennale attracted half a million visitors to celebrate ground breaking artists from around the world. Tonye has set himself apart from other contemporary African artists with his distinct use of the iconic, Ife Bronze masks in his paintings. Ife is the religious and royal center of the Yoruba people in Nigeria and the masks are exceptional works of art, dating back to the 12th century. Born in Nigeria, Tonye is now based in London and by foregrounding his Yoruba heritage in his contemporary art, he raises questions of identity, the legacy of colonialism, the social masks we wear in everyday life and he isn’t shy of uncomfortable paradox. Tonye’s role as an artist is set to move through the world in different ways taking his identity and roots with him. He says: “There is freedom in expression – and that’s where you find identity.” He’s interested in being part of design, fashion, marketing, brands in communication and education, his openness is refreshing. He prioritises knowledge as currency not economic status. We talk about identity and authenticity, connection as the most important form of validation and optimism.

Discover Tonye Ekine: www.wherestonye.com/

The Art of PR is the first exhibition to collectively present the work of established and emerging artists from the UK public relations sector, including Tonye Ekine.

Visit the Coningsby Gallery: info@coningsbygallery.com / 07884 314361

18 November 2024–23 November 2024

www.coningsbygallery.com/exhibition/the-art-of-pr-november-2024

Series Audio Editor - Joey Quan.

Series Music - Courtesy of Barry J. Gibb

Closed Captions are added to all audio interviews in this series.

Read only, text transcripts of every interview, news, reviews and your host, Paula Moore, are available here: www.canartsaveus.com

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING. PLEASE SHARE THIS FREE TO LISTEN SERIES AND HELP MAKE THE ARTS ALL OF OURS.

What's it like to be the least likely artists to have two hit, number one albums on Decca Records, one of the world's most iconic labels? Decca Classics, discovered and pursued singing nuns, the Poor Clares of Arundel in West Sussex, to record with them. The debut album, 'Light for the World,' sold out of cds within 24 hours, had 60 million streams, topped the Amazon and Apple music charts internationally and topped the UK specialist chart for 19 weeks. The second album, 'My Peace I Give You,' is out now, led by popular demand. Sister Gabriel shares their experience; doubts, resistance, concerns, negotiating terms and how this all became a beautiful experience with world wide impact.

The Poor Clares have recorded an infusion of Latin hymns and medieval texts which have had a powerful, healing impact across the world, touching the lives of people, whether they are religious or not. A common response has been, “I don't believe in God, but there is something about your music that takes me somewhere that I had never experienced before.” From the debut album, they were inundated with letters of thanks, often speaking of healing and calm, religious or not.

The Poor Clares live a contemplative, cloistered life and rarely go out but the convent and their guest house are regularly populated with visitors from all walks of life. Their multiple responsibilities revolve around a disciplined structure of praying, seven times a day and staying in touch with World News. We dispel myths of a contemplative life being simply passive. We talk about courage, personal choices, recording albums, being of service but not self-serving and balancing novelty with health curiosity. “The scariest thing to do is to submit yourself to something other than oneself.” Sister Gabriel.

Before choosing a consecrated life, Sister Gabriel, had completed a degree in auto and mechanical engineering and worked in Czechoslovakia for a year helping to improve British safety standards in machinery. Art had been a significant part of her family life in the North East, including her admiration for Tisch, a significant social documentary photographer from Newcastle, and the Pittman painters northern miners that painted a unique historical record of their lives and mined literally through class barriers to do so.

As the sisters say themselves, "You don't have to be religious to enjoy their music." Published on September 21st, 2024, International Day of Peace, the episode includes the title track, "My Peace I Give You." The music is courtesy of Decca Classics.

Photos © Chris O'Donovan

Discover The Poor Clares: www.poorclaresarundel.org

Discover Decca Classics: www.deccaclassics.com/en

Series Audio Editor - Joey Quan.

Series Music - Courtesy of Barry J. Gibb

Closed Captions are added to all audio interviews in this series.

Read only, text transcripts of every interview, news, reviews and your host, Paula Moore, are available here: www.canartsaveus.com

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING. THIS IS A FREE TO LISTEN SERIES.

PLEASE SHARE, AND HELP MAKE THE ARTS ALL OF OURS.