New podcast explores 'gaps' in museum collections

On this most recent International Women's Day, WVIK launched The Gallery Gap, a new podcast focusing on underrepresented populations in art galleries around the world. 

Exploring these issues will be Dr. Claire Kovacs, director of the Augustana Teaching Museum of Art, and Melissa Mohr, director of education at the Figge Art Museum, Davenport. 

They are experts in their fields with a passion for the topic, and have also been friends since they met in the art history graduate program at the University of Iowa. 

The idea for the podcast came when Mohr thought about featuring a woman artist from the Figge collection each day for the month of March, Women's History Month. 

"You get that cold sweat. You're gripping the steering wheel. You're thinking, could we, even if we wanted to, feature a woman artist each day for the month of March?" 

Thankfully they could, but her moment of panic started a conversation with her long-time friend and colleague. 

"During our conversation we started thinking about the work that is missing in our gallery spaces," said Kovacs. "Our goal with the Gallery Gap is to amplify those voices and think about these gaps in the traditional canon." 

For the duration of Women's History Month, they expect to focus on women specifically, but then expand the scope as the podcast continues.

The Gallery Gap is available at WVIK.org, Google Play, and on iTunes. WVIK, Quad Cities NPR, is a public service of Augustana College.