Lynn Zelevansky and Sam Taylor, director of Carnegie Museum of Natural History, exchange views on similarities and differences in scientific and artistic thinking, and how these are reflected in museums.

The 2013 Carnegie International curators are already on the track of the next exhibition. Get the early report as Lynn Zelevansky interviews the curatorial team: Daniel Baumann, Dan Byers, and Tina Kukielski.

Showcasing CMA’s strengths and ambitions, Lynn Zelevansky articulates her vision for the museum as a transformative leader in both local and global cultural discourse.

The recent censorship of David Wojnarowicz’s film A Fire in My Belly at the National Portrait Gallery has renewed interest in the impact of AIDS on the art world. See Wojnarowicz’s four-minute film and hear personal perspectives on the devastation AIDS caused in New York City in the 1980s and ’90s, and the activism and community building that resulted from it. Carnegie Museum of Art director Lynn Zelevansky will talk with Tom Sokolowski (founder of Visual AIDS, the Red Ribbon Project, Day without Art, the Quilt Project, and former director of The Andy Warhol Museum) and Patrick Moore (founding director of the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS, member of ACT UP New York, author of Beyond Shame and Tweaked, and current Business Development Officer at Pittsburgh’s Persad Center) about Wojnarowicz’s work and the ways in which AIDS changed our world forever.

The second event of the series asks: “What does it take to make an exhibition at Carnegie Museum of Art?” Using the current exhibition Ordinary Madness and upcoming show Paul Thek: Diver, A Retrospective as case studies, staff members provide an insider’s glimpse of how museums really work, from generating exhibition ideas to installing the art and involving the visitors in the interpretive experience. Hear about the issues museum people struggle with daily as we meet our responsibilities to artists, audiences, and the culture at large, and bring the burning questions your inquiring mind wants to ask.

Internationally renowned artist Duane Michals attended art classes at the museum as a child and continued to find inspiration here as a college student at nearby Carnegie Tech. The Museum of Art now owns more than 350 of his photographs. Michals, with Lynn Zelevansky as his foil, discusses with humor and frankness his longstanding relationship with CMA and the dynamic interplay between artists and museums.

In the first event of the series, Lynn Zelevansky, The Henry J. Heinz II Director of Carnegie Museum of Art, talks frankly and personally about her own experiences as curator, museum visitor, parent, friend of artists, and now museum director. Hear about her ambition for the museum and her predictions for the future of art and artists.