Memorials to Shattered Myths: An Interview with Harriet F. Senie

In this special Memorial Day Weekend episode, we interview Harriet F. Senie , Professor of Art History and Director of the M.A. program in Art History and Art Museum Studies Program at City College of New York, and co-founder of the organization Public Art Dialogue. Our topic is her recent book Memorials to Shattered Myths: Vietnam to 9/11 (Oxford University Press, 2016). Using the case studies of the Vietnam Memorial and the 9/11 Memorial, which open and close the book, we discuss how the function of public memorials has evolved over the past few decades: whereas memorials formerly helped the public to make sense of history, now, they're more likely to prompt private experiences of grief. We'll learn how and why this transition was made, and consider its negative impact on our ability to properly "memorialize" the tragedies of our time.

You can listen to Memorials to Shattered Myths: An Interview with Harriet F. Senie online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Memorials to Shattered Myths: An Interview with Harriet F. Senie is an episode from State of the Arts by Art History Happy Hour.

This episode is 44:30 long.

This episode was published on May 28, 2016.

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