ArtStorming

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Closure is supposed to feel like a click, a deep exhale, a final tidy bow. We finish Season 2, and Host Lili Pierrepont tells the truth: the click never came. After 24 conversations about loss, memorial art, and creative ways to commemorate the people we love, she expected relief. What she felt instead was exposure, anxiety, and a surprising wave of grief that reminded her how complicated remembrance really is.

In this episode, Lili walks us through what this season unearthed, including a hard look at lineage and the stories we inherit. She shares her family history and the moment a polished narrative cracked when she confronted the reality of ancestors tied to Yale and slaveholding (listen to that powerful episode with Nikesha Breeze here; or read Diamonds in the Filter: A story of two families, Yale, and a monument written in cotton). That reckoning reshaped how ArtStorming confronts legacy, not as a display of achievements, but as an honest practice that names harm, interrupts toxic patterns, and chooses what deserves to be carried forward.

PS! Check out our NEW ArtStormingwebsite!

And you can still donate to support our mission of nurturing creativity and human connection through courageous conversation at http://artbridgenm.org/donate.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

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You are not starting with a blank canvas, even if it looks that way from the outside. Legacy begins before you, in the land you are born on, the family system you arrive into, and the stories your body and nervous system may still be carrying on someone else’s behalf.

We sit down with Lexi Soulios, a systemic constellation facilitator and Art Bridge executive board member, to talk about lineage, inheritance, and ancestral healing and why so many of our “personal” struggles can be family-field dynamics playing out across generations. We connect the dots between systemic constellation work and modern epigenetics, then bring it to life with the iron harvest metaphor from WWI farmland: what gets buried in the field still affects what can grow until it is named and handled.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

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Strip away the parlor tricks, dim the lights, and let sound do something it usually is not allowed to do. We’re in Santa Fe with composer and magician B.C. Smith inside Phasmagorica, an immersive seance experiment where 13 guests gather around a table, choose “trigger items,” and step into a carefully designed mystery that lives in the liminal space between belief and disbelief. No mediums, no holograms, no cheap scares. The unsettling part is how personal it can feel.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

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Your art collection can be a source of joy for decades or a source of conflict the moment you are gone. We sit down with Sonja Moro (Los Angeles) and Michael Duffy (Atlanta) from Bank of America’s Art Services Group to talk about the intersection of passion, high finance, and the surprisingly delicate art of letting go.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

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Something is breaking in how we talk to each other, and yelling louder is not fixing it. Lili Pierrepont sits down with Abdullah Antepli, the newly appointed president of Houston’s Rothko Chapel, to explore a different approach: art as a sanctuary for slowing down, telling the truth about our past, and rebuilding trust across deep divides.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

Midlife isn’t just a number, it’s the moment your life asks for a new operating system. We sit down with Chip Conley, founder of Modern Elder Academy, boutique hotel pioneer, and early Airbnb mentor, to talk about what happens when success stops feeling satisfying and the future suddenly feels urgent. Chip shares the chain of events that pushed him into reinvention, including loss, burnout, and a near-death flatline experience that delivered one blunt message: slow down.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

What would it change if we treated death as part of our creative life instead of a topic we avoid until we have no choice? I sit down with Los Angeles 3D artist and sculptor Daniel Wheeler for a candid, funny, and deeply tender conversation about memorial art, funerary sculpture, and the ways physical objects can help us carry grief without shrinking our lives.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

A chance connection at Yale cracks open a hidden family history and turns legacy into something immediate, unsettling, and real. We talk with interdisciplinary artist Nikesha Breeze about building monuments, reclaiming erased stories, and using grief rituals to transform what history leaves in our bodies.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

Most of us are taught to treat death like a distant problem for “someday” and then we wonder why it feels so terrifying when it finally shows up. I’m joined by Joanna Ebenstein, the founder of Morbid Anatomy, to challenge that reflex and to reclaim death as a subject that can be met with dignity, curiosity, and even beauty.

Joanna Ebenstein:

https://www.morbidanatomy.org/

https://www.morbidanatomy.org/grand-tour-archive/p/muerte-en-mexico-san-luis-potosi

https://www.morbidanatomy.org/books/p/signed-pre-order-memento-mori-the-art-of-contemplating-death-to-live-a-better-life

https://www.morbidanatomy.org/books/p/death-a-graveside-companion-signed-by-editor-joanna-ebenstein-and-contributor-laetitia-barbier

https://muttermuseum.org/

@morbidanatomy

@joanna.ebenstein

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

A studio full of work can be a treasure or a ticking time bomb, depending on what happens next. We sit down with Patricia Watts, a curator, appraiser, and advisor, to talk about the behind-the-scenes reality of artist legacy planning and art estate management: the choices that decide whether decades of paintings and objects become a visible legacy or a private burden families cannot sort.

I want to take another minute to remind you listeners that ArtStorming is a listener-supported non-profit, and we need your help to keep the conversation going. Every dollar goes directly into programs that support our mission. That means more compelling stories, more in-depth articles, and a greater impact on our community. If you love what you hear, please consider making a contribution. Visit our website for more ways to engage, and thank you for being an essential part of our work.

We're going to pause here for a moment to speak to our listeners. if you like this content, and want more information on our guests, their projects and more indepth ways to engage with us, you can find us on ArtBridgeNM.org or our ArtBridge Substack. Please read, follow and share our content. Your subscriptions, shares and contributions help us grow our artistic community. Thank you and now back to our conversation.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

Santa Fe can feel like a beautiful postcard, but what happens when the postcard replaces the place? We sit down with writer and historian Pen La Farge to treat “legacy” the way it shows up in real life: not as a name on a building, but as the culture a community protects, forgets, or hands forward.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

A portrait usually freezes a moment, but what happens when the portrait is made from the life itself? We sit down with artist Heide Hatry, whose work transforms cremation ashes into hauntingly realistic faces using beeswax, encaustic layering, and a level of precision that borders on devotional. She walks us through the moment grief cracked her open, the shock of seeing what “ashes” actually are, and the painstaking early method of sorting bone fragments by tone and placing thousands of particles until a beloved person seems to reappear.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

A painting can be more than an image. It can be a witness, a prayer, and a record of what someone leaves behind. We’re in Santa Fe with nationally acclaimed artist Michael Scott, standing in front of a five-by-five canvas he carried for seven years after the loss of his mother: a boat filled with flames gliding through a marsh at night, smoke rising like calligraphy, a dove and a crow holding opposite truths about spirit and the here-and-now.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

A cemetery can be a punchline, a sanctuary, a history lesson, and a living arts venue all at once, if we let it. I’m joined by Harry Weil, vice president of education and public programs at Brooklyn’s historic Green-Wood Cemetery, to talk about how a place built for the dead is quietly becoming one of New York City’s most surprising spaces for culture, community, and honest conversations about mortality.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

What if a violin could steady a room full of grief and turn it into a space for deep remembering? We sit down with Concetta Abbate—violinist, composer, and death doula—to explore how music moves beyond entertainment to become ritual, care, and legacy. From the first notes she learned as a child with a visual impairment to the ceremonies she now shapes for families, Concetta shows how sound can hold stories when words fall short.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

Mortality doesn’t have to be a closed door. We sit down with director Tony Benna and producer Stelio Kitrilakis to unpack “Andre Is An Idiot,” the award-winning documentary that turns a terminal diagnosis into a riotous, deeply human portrait of intention, family, and art. What starts as an unthinkable pitch—make a comedy about stage four cancer—becomes a blueprint for living boldly and leaving a legacy that feels handmade.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

What does legacy feel like when you can hear it in the music, touch it in a ribbon, and watch it breathe across a stage? We sit down with choreographer and educator Francisco Gella, artistic director of Zeitgeist Dance Theater, to unpack how a 42-minute work about Chimayó weaving—aptly titled Lineage—became a living tapestry of ancestry, grit, and community. From building a human-scale loom to threading K-pop on pointe into a memory of a grandfather, Francisco reveals how research, risk, and restraint can turn craft into connection.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

What if a walk through the woods could hold your grief and hand it back as something living? We sit down with artist Deb Todd Wheeler to explore Radio Silence, a geolocated audio walk at Brookline’s Lost Pond that folds field recordings, original songs, and quiet conversation into a moving ritual of remembrance.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

If you’ve ever wondered how to align legacy with love for the earth and art infusing every step, this conversation offers a clear starting point and a lot of heart. We sit down with environmental educator and author Mallory McDuff to explore how end-of-life choices—green burial, aquamation, and human composting—can reflect our values, save money, and restore land.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode we explore how photography shapes memory, culture, and legacy with visual effects veteran Matthew Smith, tracing a line from 19th‑century spirit photos to AI deepfakes. The camera doesn’t capture truth; it curates stories, and we can choose how to author ours.

ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply.

Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.