S1: It's time for Midday Edition on Kpbs. Today , our show covers arts and culture around San Diego. I'm Jade Hindman. Here's to conversations that keep you informed , inspired and make you think. Cheers to the world of film. A new book celebrates and explores the art through cocktails.
S2: I have certainly seen things in bar rooms that will confirm your worst instincts about humanity as as you might find in a film noir.
S1: Speaking of books , we'll have a list of this summer's must read romance novels. And the African American Museum of Fine Art is displaying the art of Kehinde. Wiley will tell you where you can see it. That's ahead on Midday Edition. First , the news. TCM Noir Alley host Eddie Mueller is known as the czar of Noir , but he began his work career as a bartender and has put that to good use in his new book , Noir Bar Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir. The book serves up a tempting menu of classic cocktails , noir inspired libations and drinks crafted by Mueller himself. Kpbs Cinema Junkie host Beth Accomando speaks with Mueller in his excerpt from her latest podcast.
S3: So Eddie , you have another book out. This one is called Noir Bar. So not surprising , you're still dealing with film noir. So before we talk about the book , you mentioned something in the intro that I did not know about you , which is you were a bartender once. So tell me a little bit about that background.
S2: I had to figure out some way to actually make a living because as I'm sure you know , if if all you want to do is write , it can be difficult to get your legs under you and you have to adopt survival mode when you're young. So I did. I went to bartending school. I thought , you know , I could get a good gig working in like hotels or something like that. So you had to know how to make a lot of cocktails. It was a short lived excursion into that world , to be honest with you. I mean , I did it for a while , but I wasn't working in very nice places. I got I got tired of people drinking too much. But I certainly did learn how to make a bunch of different guys. It was a weird time , but that was in the 1970s and it was like the cocktail revival had not happened at all. You know , so you were really making drinks for older people and , you know , young young people were smoking weed. They weren't drinking cocktails. So.
S3:
S2: I mean , I've had a lot of it's ridiculous to me how many people I have had confessed to me their plans to commit crimes in bars. I mean , it's it's weird weather. I mean , once when I was working at the bar , but then just sitting at bars , I've had multiple occasions where people have told me what horrible crimes they are going to commit. And and I tell them , you know , the first thing you have to realize is you're going to fail at this. So don't even attempt it because you've failed the the most crucial test of all. You just blabbed about this to a complete stranger before you did it. So I don't think whatever you're conceiving here is going to work. And I'm telling you that this happened to me like within the last six months , a guy in a bar who clearly had suffered through something. And I I'm the guy who asked the questions , you know , I mean , that was my in addition to being a bartender , you know , I was a journalist. So it's like , I will ask the question , if I see somebody sitting in a bar who clearly has suffered some damage , I will ask how that happened. And then all bets are off after that.
S3: So how did this particular book come about ? You've written a number of books on noir , and I know you love a good cocktail and a good noir.
S2: It was it really was not my idea. As weird as that , in some ways I now see it as like the inevitable book , like it was inevitable this book would exist. But I'm giving full credit to my editor at Running Press who was responsible for the republication of Dark City , The Lost World of film noir , the revised and expanded edition. Cindy , my editor , you know , said , Well , that turned out great. What do we want to do for an encore ? And I was thinking about some big , big projects and things , and she just said , How would you feel about doing a cocktail book ? Because we've had a lot of success with those. That was the genesis of it. And it also kind of grew out of Covid , obviously , since so many people were trapped at home. I guess at home bars became quite a thing. And I started doing little videos , YouTube videos to tie in because I you know , I was shooting my show at home rather than take all the equipment down. After shooting episodes for Noir Alley , I made some. Videos. So when Cindy said , do you have a. Can you put together a proposal for this book ? I said , I'll just give you a link to the cocktail videos. And then everybody at the publisher looked at those videos and said , We should just do a book. Let's do. That.
S3: That. And when you decided to write this , tell people kind of like what the approach was and what they can expect to find in this book.
S2: It was to me , it was exactly like programming a film festival. It's like you want to find the right balance. But in this case , I knew that it was like a movie paired with a cocktail , and I didn't want to get too precious about this. But I know that people who watch Noir Alley , it's become sort of destination TV. And so people like , they like to watch it when it's on. And there's a social media aspect for a lot of people where they like , check in , Hey , it's Saturday night. It's , you know , out here on the West Coast , it's 9:00. It's like 9:00. Checking in for , you know , this week's episode. What are you drinking ? And so I noticed that a lot of people were doing that. So I said , oh , okay , So this makes good sense. We'll just tie certain drinks in with the movies. And it was it could be any number of things that nudged my decision making. It could be that the cocktail was actually consumed in the in the movie , you know , like the pearl diver. And the blue Gardenia is very important to the plot.
S4:
S5:
S4: These aren't really drinks. They're trade winds across cool lagoons at the Southern Cross above coral reefs. There are lovely maiden bathing at the foot of a waterfall. Oh , that's. Pretty.
S5: Pretty. It doesn't make much sense , but it's pretty.
S4:
S2: Stingers in the big clock. Ray Milland. It's like they make a big deal out of it in the movie.
S4: Bartender , bring us two more stingers , and this time , make them with green. Mint with green. Mint. Green mint. That's what the boy says. Oh , no.
S2: Or it could be doing my research to figure out what a certain personality's favorite cocktail was or a drink that was named for someone. Like there was a Joan Blondell cocktail created in Havana in the 1930. And , you know , she only made one noir film , Nightmare Alley , but we included that one. And it's it's one of the better cocktails in the book. Actually. We modified it. It was modified from the original recipe , but close enough that we still maintain that Joan Blondell was the inspiration for it.
S6: Do you ever hit a man ? No. Do you ever love a woman ? Never. Did you ever get drunk and get thrown out in your ear ? Certainly not. Would you have a wicked or didn't you ever want to be wicked ? Never. Have you had any fun at all ? I haven't had time. Well , someone has the fun tonight.
S3: And you also offer a lot of help to those of us who may not have a fully stocked bar and all the right equipment. The book also includes lists of ingredients and other tips. So what drove you to kind of like make this a really kind of comprehensive book ? Well.
S7:
S2: Because I have an at home bar. I have several at home bars , to be quite honest. And so I knew what was involved in creating a bar where you can just say , well , what am I going to drink now ? And you could have a wide variety of choice. And I didn't want it to be too precious. You know , there are some things about cocktail culture that I absolutely love , and I'm so glad it's made a comeback. But then I don't take it as far as some people were. It's like , you know , artisan cocktails and everything has 12 ingredients and the rarest of this and that , yet I get that. That's for that's for people who take cocktails the way I take film. Right. It's like I have to find that last one. I have to be a completist. I'm not really like that with cocktails , so I just thought it would be very helpful for people who maybe you're just getting started in this to understand. Like , you just need these simple tools , you know , the mineral spirits and the liqueurs and the fortified wines and the mixers and the juices. These are like the basics that will set you up so you can pretty much make anything that anybody wants when they come home. That's the idea. And also , I wanted it to be a little more informal because I want people to understand that they'll develop their own tastes if they haven't been drinking for 20 years or something. You can very early on , you'll figure out what agrees with you and what doesn't. You know , some people can't drink tequila , some people don't like scotch , whatever. I encourage people to figure out what appeals to them and then learn how to use that to mix cocktails with other ingredients.
S3: I was really happy to see that I could probably make a lot of these without a whole lot of trouble. And that's a lot of fun. I mean , that makes it way more accessible than if it was complicated cocktail mixes and stuff. Exactly.
S2: Exactly. And I very much encourage people to drink whatever you buy to make cocktails with , drink it straight just to understand what it is like. Have a little shot glass of it straight so you understand what it is and then how it mixes with other things. And then you can just play around after that. I mean , there is no huge mistake. You'll see the patterns pretty clearly once you start making cocktails. You understand that everything's a derivation of a Manhattan martini , an old fashioned and negroni. These are basic things.
S3: I mean , I was expecting there to be good drinks and good selections of films , but there are beautiful color photos of posters and you pull out quotes from films.
S2: Because picking the cocktails , sometimes I picked them because I knew it would make a great photo spread. Like , you know , like , oh , this will be great because how will we show this cocktail ? Because I think about 27 of the 50 cocktails get a glamor shot. They get their own George Hurrell photograph of the cocktail , right ? We stage them with props that will remind people of the films. And that was one of the things I really enjoyed about this project , was just putting that all together so that I think the hardcore fans of these movies , when they look at the photos of the cocktails , we try to put nice little clues in there , things that pertain to the movies. Like if you see there's an angel face cocktail that's actually a traditional cocktail from the Prohibition era. And I paired obviously with the Robert Mitchum Gene Simmons movie Angel Face. But you'll notice that in the picture we show of the cocktail , it's on a bar with a cocktail napkin with a note written from Gene Simmons character to Mitchum's character. You see the Jaguar keychain because she drives that fabulous little Jaguar convertible in the film. And so if you've seen the movie , you know that nothing good is going to come of this. It's such a noir thing , you know , it looks so romantic in the picture , like the cocktail , the keys to the car. But if you've seen the movie , you know that that's a very noir moment. It's not going to go well.
S3: Well , I want to thank you very much for talking about the book and for creating this book. Like I said , it is gorgeous. I think people they take one look at it and see how wonderfully everything is presented. They can't possibly resist.
S2: Oh , I thank you very much. I accept that on behalf of the whole team that put this book together , they really did a sensational job that. Thank you so much.
S4: For the kind.
S2: Words , Beth.
S3: Well , and I do themed food , so I am going to take this book and start pairing them up with the noir desserts that I've made and oh.
S2: That I am. Oh , I hope your listeners know what you're talking about because you are like the queen of of the cool desserts that go with the film screening. Yeah. What it would when I came and presented something what was it this gun for hire and you made like little 45 automatic cookies or something.
S3: Yeah , yeah , they were gun cookies. And then we also had cookies that were shaped like body outlines of the corpses you would find. And we put out little markers like evidence markers along with them. Brilliant.
S2: Brilliant. It was. Brilliant.
S7: Brilliant.
S3: Now I'm newly inspired to do another film series and start cooking more food.
S2: I think it's a great idea. Invite me.
S3: I'd love to have you come down and present a film and we'll have to pick a drink that we can make easily for like 50 people.
S2: That's easy. That's easy. We can do that. That would.
S7: Be fun.
S3: Well , till then , cheers. Okay.
S7: Okay.
S3: Bottoms up and thank you so much for your time and for the book.
S2: Always a pleasure , Beth. Thank you.
S1: That was Beth Accomando speaking with Eddie Mueller. You can hear the full podcast at pbs.org. Slash Cinema Junkie. What are your reading recommendations for this summer ? We'd love to hear from you. Give us a call at (619) 452-0228. Leave a message or you can email us at midday at pbs.org. Coming up , why romance novels may be a good genre to read into.
S8: Whenever you pick up a romance book. You know for certain that the end of the book , no matter what , no matter what happens , there will be a happily ever after. Because that's what makes a romance.
S1: You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. Welcome back. You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. Summer is upon us. And while some of us might go out and get active in the sun , it's also the perfect time to lounge around with a good beach read. Romance books are particularly hot this summer. They remain popular even as overall book sales decline. And it's an increasingly diverse genre too. Here to give us some of her summery romance recommendations is Ashley Poston. She's the author of The Dead Romantics. Her new book , The Seven Year Slip , came out Tuesday. Ashley , welcome.
S8: Thank you. It's so great to be here.
S1: So glad to have you. So I want to get into what your summer reading list looks like.
S8: If you like dense fantasy novels , that's definitely your summer read. But for me , I like bright , lighthearted , kind of like romances that can transport me away from the beach because I burn like a lobster. This is so I would love to be transported away from the sand and the surf.
S1: All right.
S8: Whenever you pick up a romance book , you know for certain that the end of the book , no matter what , no matter what happens , there will be a happily ever after , because that's what makes a romance. So I think it's that certainty that when you pick up a novel , you can read it and you know , at the end things will work out. Even if they don't , they don't seem like they will halfway through.
S1: So it's not just a good read for the summer. It sounds like it's just a good read period.
S8: Oh , absolutely. Like I love a good thriller or a good mystery , but there's just something about knowing that at the end of the day , this book will wrap up and it will be like happily ever after. Tied with a bow. Nice.
S1: Nice. So , okay , let's start with your recommendation. San Diego is known for its beaches.
S8: I would actually recommend the Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holtan. It's about two rival spies who fall in love between pirates , witches and a fake marriage. It is a snarky historical fantasy. If you enjoy The Princess Bride , which I do , I have read that book so many times. India Holtan has like a fantastic way of capturing the essence of the Princess Bride and just making her historical fantasy adventure fun and romp and snarky and really kind of steamy and romantic. So I definitely recommend that because it transports you away from like the gritty sand under your towel. And it's the third book in the Daring Damsels trilogy , and the other two before it are fantastic as well. You don't have to read the other ones to enjoy this one. They're all basically companions to each other. So if you like that one , definitely check out her other two. But if you are at the beach and you don't want to read a fantasy , I absolutely also recommend Business or Pleasure by Rachel and Solomon. It is not fantasy. It is a good old fashioned rom com. It is about a ghostwriter and an actor from a certain werewolf TV series like Teen Wolf , and they fall in love in this delightfully nerdy rom com. She has to ghostwrite his memoir. And they kind of like have a spark and a relationship plays out. And it's it's very , very , very beachy.
S1: Or you've got mail.
S8: And you've got mail one. Okay. Okay. So you've got mail. One is you're getting ahead of me. The You've got Mail one is probably one of my absolute favorites. You you can read it. You know , I would personally read it on like transportation , like if you're going somewhere because you will be engrossed by the , the like really fun romance of it. It's called the Neighbor Favor by Christina Forrest. It is. You've got Mail but make it steamy. It is about an aspiring children's book editor who is pen pals with a fantasy author until he just goes her cold turkey and then she has to find a wedding date and she begins to have this kind of friendship with one of the other neighbors in her apartment complex. And he might or might not know her a little better than than he's letting on. So it's it's just a lovely , delightful romp , especially if you love Nora Ephron. It's. In that in that vein.
S1:
S8: It is the Sapphic Adult Summer camp rom com of your dreams. I am not a woodsy person , so I would absolutely read this in the comfort of my air conditioning. The last time I went camping , I got chased by a baby bear , but I actually think we were both running in the same direction at the same time. It doesn't matter. I've never been camping since. But. But that summer feeling makes me want to find a really , like , lovely woman and have a date out in the woods and kiss her under the trees. Even though I hate mosquitoes and the outdoors. It is lovely and Sapphic and it is the perfect couch read.
S1: You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. I'm speaking with Ashley Poston , author of The Dead Romantics and the Seven Year Slip. Ashley , your latest romance book , The Seven Year Slip , just came out and it's all about time travel.
S8: So the seven year slip is about an overworked book publicist who inherits her late aunt's Upper East Side apartment , and she finds herself falling for her unexpected roommate , a man who lives quite literally seven years in the past.
S1: And both the seven year slip and the Dead Romantics had a they have a supernatural twist to them. The Dead Romantics follows a ghost with her actual ghostly editor.
S8: And then I always knew I wanted to try a time travel romance. I grew up on Doctor Who. So I love the whole wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. So I wanted to try time and travel , but I am not an Excel spreadsheet kind of person. And that's the kind of person who writes a really good , complicated time travel book. So instead I thought of time travel as a place where two people from different times meet in the same place , and that worked out so well and it helped me figure out how to write a story about love and growing with your love and with other people. So I was really excited to like find a time travel gimmick that works for me.
S1: And you worked in publishing before going into writing full time.
S8: I worked as a marketing designer , so I did a lot of ad promos for for books. And it was one of my favorite jobs I've ever had , aside from being a full time writer. But it was it was lovely. I hated to go , but I really did not like like the city. I love summer in the city and that's why I wrote the seven year slip in New York in the summer. But I was just so homesick. And so I decided to go home and try to make this writing thing full time. And luckily , somehow it worked out always good.
S1: And you started your career primarily writing young adult novels. Now you're writing more contemporary romance.
S8: When I first signed with my agent , I told her I wanted to write romance as well as as young adult novels. And she was like , okay , yeah , sure , we can absolutely do this. We can diversify your list. And I'm like , Yeah , great. We can do it. And so I wrote Young Adult for a while and then the pandemic happened and I had an idea for a ghost story , and I was like , Well , let's try this , this , this romance thing. So I took all my favorite tropes from the fanfic that I've read because I'm a I am an avid fanfic reader , and most fanfics are are romantic leaning. So I took all my favorite tropes and I put them into one and it was a ball.
S1:
S9:
S8: I think it's because romance novels , while not geared toward women , have have a very , like broad female readership. And I and I think that in some ways helps build a community because when you when you look back at like Beatlemania or or One Direction. The communities were formed through , through like , women and like meeting each other and like , you know , forming these these communities. So I think it's just something we've always kind of done. We've always , like gathered around and , you know , communicated and like shouted about what we love. And I think I think that's really beautiful.
S1: And I want to get back to recommendations.
S8: This is a book that I actually read last year and it has stuck with me since then. It's one of my absolute favorites. I can't get out of my head. It is called Mrs. Nash's Ashes. Try to say that five Times Best by Sara Adler. It is grumpy meets sunshine and it's Laugh Out Loud. It's a road trip book from Washington DC to Key West , Florida , and there's so many fun shenanigans along the way. I mean , try being trapped in a car with like , your most hated person for what , two days ? It's it's like in the When Harry Met Sally movie , the road trip from Chicago to to New York. This like that feeling is this entire book and it is so good the tension is almost palatable and it has one of the best small town festival gimmicks I have ever read. It is. It is. Fun.
S9: Fun.
S1: Sounds like it. And for those who might not yet be convinced by romance books or meet cutes and happily ever after.
S8: There's this new novel that just came out called The Infinite Miles by Hannah Ferguson. It is sci fi leaning like if you love a nerdy doctor Who and and queer exploration , this is definitely the book for you. It is How to Lose a Time War but Make it doctor Who.
S1: All right. All of them sound interesting. I've been speaking with Ashley Poston , author of the books The Dead Romantics and the Seven Year Slip. Ashley , thanks so much for joining us.
S9: Of course. Thank you so much.
S8: For having me.
S1: Coming up , the work of world renowned artist Colin Wiley is on display right here in San Diego. We'll hear from the African American Museum of Fine Art about the painting and where you can see it. This is a painting that you.
S10: Can sit here in this room and glance at for hours and keep finding new aspects to look at.
S1: You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. Welcome back. You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. There's a new work of art on View in San Diego by the notable American artist Kehinde Wiley , whose name you may recognize from his national portrait of President Obama that was unveiled in 2018. The work you can see in San Diego is a large painting in the style of 17th century Dutch and Flemish artists. But Wiley has replaced the traditional white character with a black man dressed in modern clothing. Kpbs arts producer and editor Julia Dixon Evans visited the painting at the Timken with three of the people responsible for bringing it to San Diego. Derrick Cartwright , the Tomkins Director of Curatorial Affairs. Katie Finney , Executive director of San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art , and one of their founding board members , Dr. Fern Nelson. Nelson started us out by describing the painting.
S10: Let me tell you that when you walk into this gallery of the Temkin Museum , what you see is an enormous , brightly colored , fabulous painting. When you focus in , you see an amazing painting , including a horse , which is somewhere between full gallop and rearing up. You see a beautiful black man who looks to be in his maybe mid 20s riding the horse. The man is looking at you specifically with his eyes turned toward you. The horse has the most beautiful eyes and is looking forward. The man is wearing street clothes. Even though this looks like it would be more of an older type painting. I like the way that the young man has on what's called a wife beater t shirt. His pants are orange , which is amazing. And he has a bright red sash around his waist. The horse itself is amazing. Full rein , gorgeous mane , kind of blond brown , and you can see every curl in the horse's hair. The saddle is sort of an embroidered , beautiful , somewhat carpet texture. And all of this in a huge painting. This painting is it takes up the entire wall. Its presence is amazing. Even the detailed frame of this painting sets it off. There's background , which is brightly colored between coral , orange , red of flowers , interspersed with a medium green and a bright blue floral embroidered type background. And overall , this is a painting that you can sit here in this room and glance at for hours and keep finding new aspects to look at.
S11:
S12: So we were particularly interested in this painting for the Timken because we own great work by Anthony Van Dyck , who's the model. And the painting that we have here is based on another painting by Van Dyck , which is today in Turin. It's called an Equestrian Portrait of Prince Tomaso , Francesco of Savoy Canyon. It was done in 1634 , and it was a portrait of a young Italian military leader. And I think it's part of Wylie's genius that he's picking these models that he can update and sort of question how we've seen art in the past. So he not only takes Van Dyck as a model , but he also uses Velazquez and other artists to inform his practice. In this case , he's thinking about this very specific painting. And as Vern said , he's using this really handsome , powerful young black man in the place of that Italian military leader , making us think about why wasn't this always the practice for great portraiture in the past.
S11:
S12: I think we're really proud of our Dutch Flemish collection here in San Diego. It's one of the finest in certainly on the West Coast and among all museums in the United States. This is one of the great collections. If you're ever going to come and look at work by Rembrandt and Bruegel and Petrus Christus and others , this is a good place to do it. But by inserting Wiley into that narrative , I think we really challenge the way that art historians tend to think about the old masters. And so we very deliberately took our. Election and inserted Wiley in this way. So he's currently taking the place of our Rembrandt , and that itself is a big claim on space. But he's also adjacent to our great painting by Antony Van Dyck. It's a work that's been here for over 20 years , and I think by putting them side by side and asking us to consider how a contemporary artist working in New York today thinks about old masters , it encourages everybody here in San Diego to go through some of those same thought processes and ask ourselves , why only these figures ? Why do people in these paintings that are 400 years old all look the same ? And Wiley says , No , they didn't have to look that way. We could look at them differently and understand how our culture is both a continuation , but also a break from that past.
S11: And to clarify , the Rembrandt is still here. It is.
S12: It's right next to it. We wouldn't disappoint people that way , but it has given its pride of place over to Wiley for at least the next few months.
S11: Guide many of us will recognize Kendi Wiley's work from his presidential portrait of Obama.
S13: And so the museum itself is a reflection of that. We bring art to the people. And so it's always been a dream to have important art for the region of San Diego , for the people of San Diego in this region to come in and enjoy. And Gandhi , while being , as we call it , the rock star , current rock star artists. We really wanted to have that here. So I was blown away totally. When Derek and Megan reached out to me and said , We have the painting here. So I would encourage every citizen of every race , all the people in this region to come to the Timken and come and see this and spend some time with it and bring the kids.
S11:
S13: And because of the old master part , because of the young black men in it as well , I think it just brings the community together and have and gives people another means to appreciate art and what it says to you. We want art to speak back to the people that come in and just have it talk to you in terms of what is it that you get out of it. And so that's the important part of having a painting like this , an important painting , an important painting with a black man in an important painting. That's important for the black culture to be here. All of that. All that is so wonderful. So we are grateful and happy and we'll be doing programming and bringing people in and more kids in. And as I said , if you have a chance , all the people of San Diego should come and see it.
S11: Can we talk a little bit about the series that this painting is from ? It's a series called Rumors of War , if I'm correct.
S12: So the Rumors of War series , I think , began around 2005. And it's then that Wiley , who had been street casting young black men and women in his paintings and putting them in the poses of old master works for at least 5 or 6 years at that point starts going big. So in the way that Fern so nicely described , this big , imposing painting , it's the Rumors of War series where he begins to think on that scale beyond smaller scale portraits and and other works. And so putting large figures on horseback is something that goes back to antiquity , right ? The Roman emperors put themselves on horses to make themselves look more like powerful leaders to the small people before them. And so Wiley is thinking about that history. He's thinking about how he can alter it by putting in new figures. And he's also thinking about the politics of the United States at that time. So he's quite deliberately incorporating these young , powerful , in this case , black men into this narrative of leadership. And it's interesting because as the decades have gone by this series , rumors of war has become more and more important to Wiley. So some people may know that in Richmond , Virginia , where there was this long public display of Confederate leaders , there's actually a statue of Robert E Lee , which was taken down and replaced with a statue by Kehinde Wiley , called Rumors of War , which , like this painting , shows this powerful young black man on horseback sort of taking the place and changing that history as it was commonly accepted , maybe passively accepted by the people of Richmond , Virginia. So I think. All the series that Wylie had been working on in the early 2000. The rumors of war is maybe the most significant and powerful for us to consider today.
S11: Gary , I want to shift gears a little bit. You run the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art , which is an institution without a physical home.
S13: But because they used that space so much , we really couldn't stay there long. But the actual vision was and I said , as I stated it earlier , was to bring the best art in the world of San Diego. We we really needed to follow what the American Association of Museums Facility reporters so that you can have a kind of piece like this. You have to have security , you have to have the gas and the protection of the art. So art goes into museums and it never changes and it has to maintain that. So we decided that we would then in order to bring the kind of art to San Diego , we would collaborate with those museums who had the capacity to hold and to house famous artists. So we have worked with the men , the veterans , the contemporary , the History Center with the Mopar , all of those we've worked with and have been asked to come back because what we have done when we collaborated was bring a whole new group of people that usually don't go to those museums. And I think that's happening here at the Timken as well , that we have this capacity. First of all , our work that we've done is beautiful. It always is. It's our mission to make sure that whatever we do is the finest that you can see. So our exhibits are wonderful and it's important that we have that ability to collaborate with great institutions like this one that can house famous art. And we then could bring it here to San Diego.
S11: I'm wondering about you were one of the founding board members of the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art. I'm wondering what you see for this institution in the future.
S10: We would like to have a permanent home so that when people want to come to the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art , they have a space that they can go to. That way we can do programming as we like. We can get involved with community aspects as we like. We also want to continue to work with the museums of San Diego because we may need to have wonderful spaces such as the Timken , to bring artists such as Kehinde Wiley that have enormous portraits , portraiture. We may need to have museums that have 24 over seven security and temperature control. And this is to say that I don't know what our future museum space will be , but to have both options is ideal for us.
S13: Oh , I just wanted to add that the city of San Diego has designated ten city blocks to be a black cultural district and has asked the San Diego African-American Museum to manage that. And so that's another area that we're developing art.
S11: Derrick The Timken is always free to the public , and it has been as long as I can remember.
S12: We want there to be no barriers to experiencing the greatest things that artists have made over time. And we feel like this belongs in that description. So we're really excited about that. The Timken from its founding , has prided itself on being San Diego's only always free art museum , and that's not going to change. I think what is changing is our sense of responsibility to the full public of San Diego and that we want to make sure that everybody who comes into this museum finds something that they are interested in and that reflects their way of viewing the world. And that's not always the easiest thing to do when you're dealing with paintings that are 500 , 600 years old. But I think in this case , thanks to our colleagues , we've been able to deliver on that. And I'm really excited and can't wait to hear from the public that comes to see this work , what they think.
S11:
S12: Animated and interesting for that full year. And we'll keep you posted.
S11: And the first thing that I saw there is a curator discussion , right , in mid-August. Yeah.
S12: Yeah. So we're really lucky. Denise Rogers , who's a fantastic art historian , has agreed to come in and we're going to have a dialogue about this. She knows Wiley's work really well , and she'll put this into a wonderful historical context for the public.
S11: It's something you see the Timken doing more of in the future.
S12: Yeah , I think so. I mean , earlier this year we had this great project with the Dutch artist Renea Dijkstra , where she filmed all these audiences in Holland in front of Rembrandt's Night Watch. And so you saw these really diverse publics talking about one of the greatest paintings that's always been on the minds of art historians. And in that way sort of bringing the contemporary perspective to bear on these old masterworks. And I think we're going to continue to do that. In fact , we've considered this project to be a continuation of that rethinking of our collection and bringing it right up to the present.
S1: The Kehinde Wiley painting will be on view at the Temkin through May 2024. As always , we'd love to hear your thoughts on today's show. Give us a call at (619) 452-0228. You can leave a message or you can email us at midday at pbs.org. Join us again Monday for a recap of the big Supreme Court decisions coming down and how they'll shape the American landscape. I want to thank the midday edition team Andrew Bracken , Harrison Patino , Juliana Domingo and Ariana Clay are our show producers. Adrian Villalobos and Rebecca Chacon are our technical directors. Julia Dixon Evans and Beth Accomando are arts contributors. The music you're hearing is from San Diego's own Sure Fire Soul Ensemble. Tomorrow , you can hear the roundtable with Matt Hoffman right here at noon. And tonight , you can watch Kpbs , Evening Edition at five. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend , everyone.
