At Acoustiguide, we love creating audio guides, tours, experiences—you get the picture—because the best ones connect listeners to art. We learn stuff that sticks with us along the way, because in the end, we’re listeners, too.
Here are a few recent highlights, from funny, to humbling, to freaky!
- From Degas at the Opéra at the National Gallery of Art
- In Degas’ day, a watering can was left in the dance studios to wash down the dusty floors!
- Did you know the original Little Dancer Aged Fourteen has ACTUAL human hair??
- From the new permanent collection at the Seattle Art Museum Asian Art Museum
- Actor Hudson Yang suggests that making a television show isn’t so different from making a work of art like this one — and this was part of a manuscript that took 15 years to make way back in the 1500s.
- From K-9 Courage at National September 11 Memorial & Museum
- Did you know that dogs have a greater filtering system in their noses than humans? It’s why they smell *everything*. More importantly, it may be the reason so many of them stayed free of respiratory diseases during the cleanup of the World Trade Center site.
- From “Stories of Daily Life” at the Jewish Museum
- The Jewish Museum’s permanent collection contains many tzedakah boxes (or charity boxes), but one particularly charming one was discovered floating in the East River! Listen to the stop here!
- From Flesh & Blood: Italian Masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum at the Kimbell Art Museum
- Famed Italian Baroque painter Guido Reni reportedly had a pathological fear of women! Dr. Babette Bohn, Professor of Art History at the College of Fine Arts at TCU, says this may explain Reni’s less-than-believable paintings of nude women, like ATALANTA AND HIPPOMENES, a stop on this tour. And she offers a story about taboo laundry. One day, Reni’s basket of laundry arrived at his studio… and, according to Bohn: “To Reni’s horror, they discovered a woman’s blouse mixed in with the laundry. And Reni insisted that everything needed to be rewashed in pure water, and he never sent the laundry out again.”
- Located on the historic Angels Quartz Mine in Calaveras County, CA, Angels Camp Museum tells the story of California’s original ’49ers – those who migrated to the West Coast (in 1849) to take part in the Gold Rush—and the patent technology that’s still used today! For example… take a look at this beauty:
- That’s the Pelton wheel, invented by—you guessed it– Lester A. Pelton 130 years ago or so. Funny fact: At the time, the standard wheel was named the hurdy-gurdy. (Who knew?) Pelton’s new design was so efficient that it’s still being used today, often to generate hydroelectric power. Ciao, hurdy-gurdy!
You can hear the clips here. The stories we get to tell are always a privilege. We have a lot in store in the months ahead and look forward to sharing more here!
