From a young age, Nathaniel Mary Quinn learned how to draw from his father sitting at the kitchen table. His natural ability allowed him to befriend many tough guys in his Chicago neighborhood. Quinn earned a positive reputation access to subjects who felt comfortable around him. This powerful and insightful interview takes you in the world of this artist. A graduate of Wabash College and NYU, this artist uses acrylic, charcoal, gouache, oil and gold leaf to convey his fractured style. Quinn is one of three featured artists in his first museum show For Opacity at the Drawing Center in SoHo. The artists were selected to spotlight relationships in their works.

State of the Arts NYC 10/11/2018 with host Savona Bailey-McClain

This week we talk with Kyle Bergman, Festival Director for ADFF and filmmaker Ultan Guilfoyle on Frank Gehry: Building Justice. This documentary tells the story of architect Frank Gehry’s investigation into prison design as a subject for the best architecture students in the United States. The film follows Gehry as he arranges two ‘master’ studios at the invitation of George Soros and his Open Society Foundation — one at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles, the other at the Yale School of Architecture. In collaboration with Susan Burton of the “New Way of Life Reentry Project” in Compton, California, Gehry and his students explore all aspects of prison design, learning first-hand the design flaws of prison living from women who have been incarcerated in the worst American prisons. Frank Gehry: Building Justice follows the group on a trip to Norway to visit what is considered to be the world’s most successful prisons.

State of the Arts NYC 10/18/2018 with host Savona Bailey-McClain

This week on State of the Arts NYC we have joining us the President and Vice President of IFPDA. That's David Tunick and Mary Ryan. This prestigious fair opens today at the River Pavilion at the Jacob Javitis Center along the Hudson River. 

The International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) is the authority on fine art prints and their connoisseurship and collection. Now with more than 160 members in thirteen countries, members of the IFPDA reflect a worldwide community of expert art dealers from old master to contemporary as well as publishers of editions by internationally renowned contemporary artists.

State of the Arts NYC 10/25/2018 with host Savona Bailey-McClain

The Interpreters follows the harrowing stories of Iraqi and Afghan interpreters as they pay a life-and-death price for working with coalition forces during the wars. Now they are struggling to reach safety and rebuild their lives in the aftermath of war. Though many interpreters who worked with the United States are eligible to receive the Special Immigrant Visa (S.I.V.), which would allow them to take their families out of harm’s way and start a new life in the states, the slow and dysfunctional application process can take years. Those who find themselves under imminent threat must either hide or make their own way as refugees to Europe, while the unlucky ones who fall into the hands of militants and extremists can expect a gruesome death.

State of the Arts NYC 11/8/2018 with host Savona Bailey-McClain

In 1955 when racial segregation defined the South, two groups of 12 year old boys stepped onto a baseball field in an act of cultural defiance that would change the course of history. On this special episode we have Bill Hudson and Reverend Freddie Augustine who played each other in the Little League Championship Game. Rejoined 60 years later, they tell us their special story.

State of the Arts NYC with host Savona Bailey-McClain Special Edition Long Time Coming

This week on State of the Arts NYC we have Esther Adler, Associate Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints at The Museum of Modern Art. We talk about Charles White and the retrospective MoMA has organized for the first time in a major American museum.

White’s far-reaching vision of a socially committed practice attracted promising young artists, including many artists of color, and he became one of the 20th century’s most important and dedicated teachers. Acclaimed contemporary artists David Hammons and Kerry James Marshall were among his many students: as Marshall reflected, “Under Charles White’s influence I always knew that I wanted to make work that was about something: history, culture, politics, social issues. … It was just a matter of mastering the skills to actually do it.”

State of the Arts NYC 11/15/2018 with host Savona Bailey-McClain

State of the Arts NYC edition is a weekly radio show heard on various platforms where various sectors of NYC’s arts worlds converge to report and analyze the dynamic state of the arts and its participants.  Hosted by Savona Bailey-McClain, long-time Executive Director of the West Harlem Art Fund (WHAF), she confronts, analyzes and celebrates victories, challenges and changes in the country’s dynamic creative capital. Reports from the field; from the far-flung fringes; from center stage and from behind the scenes—the host Savona Bailey-McClain draws on her 20 years’ in the trenches to bring you snapshot after snapshot in living color.  State of the Arts NYC edition can also be heard on iTunes, iHeart Radio, FM Player,  Radio Public, Soundcloud, Youtube, Mixcloud and Spreaker.