We often say we want to make the world better.
At Studio Aesculapius, we think engaged, thoughtful dialogue about the arts can help.
Join us on our journey of discovery.
Artists Telling Stories explore the stories of artists—their journeys, their thoughts, their wisdom—and the impact of their art on their own well-being and on those who encounter their work. Artists offer a language of our humanity while bringing the transformative power of art to you.
Anatomy of a Photo features the art of stories, as guest artists describe one of their most important photographs, telling their story of what was photographed, how the photo was created, and why the image is important.
Studio Aesculapius News
René Paul Barilleaux, Head of Curatorial Affairs, presents the spring banner exhibition, Michael Tracy: The Elegy of Distance. Hear about Tracy's complex journey, from his first-ever museum exhibition at the McNay to his last exhibition showcasing never-before-seen works.
Studio Aesculapius joins the The Neuroarts Resource Center, a dynamic and ever-expanding platform driven by a shared belief in the power of arts and aesthetic experiences to enhance health and wellbeing.
Recorded at South Africa’s historic Market Theatre, the album features artistic director and bandleader/trumpeter Sean Jones and vocalist Alicia Olatuja.
Paul Elie’s new book, The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s traces the cultural expressions that helped to create the divisiveness and the culture wars found in today’s religion and politics.
Aruna D’Souza of the New York Times offers a review of Vincent Valdez’s work - A ‘Chicano Hieronymus Bosch’ Has an Unflinching Vision of America.
The International Center of Photography (ICP) and Harlowe present Through the Light of Hope, a groundbreaking symposium exploring the intersection of art and science in healing trauma through photography.
Artist Vincent Valdez’s new retrospective Just a Dream offers glimpse of tragedy and triumph of life in contemporary America.
Artistic Directors Austin Tichenor and Reed Martin share the 2025 Sidney Berger Award from the Shakespeare Theatre Association honoring their commitment to popularizing the works of Shakespeare around the world.
Edward Dupuy’s remarkable new book Recollections on a Road Between: A Story of My Life is now available.
For their first collaboration in nearly 15 years, Dalt Wonk and Josephine Sacabo have assembled a selection of their best journalist work in NEW ORLEANS (1970-2020): A PORTRAIT OF THE CITY, providing an indelible retrospective on some of the Crescent City’s major cultural landmarks over the last 50 years.
Discover Artists Telling Stories
Steve Bliss is serious about the value art (his art) can bring to a fractured society, yet he recognizes that elements of art can also be used to manipulate a culture. Bliss believes there is a truth that can be approached through photography, despite its proclivity to nostalgia—capturing a romanticized or idealized feeling of the past—and he appreciates the turn photography has taken toward awakening a sense beyond nostalgia.
Meryl Truett is a curator, gallerist, teacher, consultant, and artist. She earned an MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design. After years in the United States, where she taught and produced works such as Vernacular Highway and a photography book, Thump Queen and other Southern Anomalies (in its second printing), she moved to the magical pueblo of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Meryl continues to exhibit—in the US, Europe, and now Mexico. Her current work mixes photography with other media in order to excavate her past. She speaks of such excavations in this episode of Artists Telling Stories.
Josephine Sacabo’s art seeks transcendence and connection. She eschews any chasing after artistic fashion in favor of diving into what she loves. In this way she connects with those who view her work. The many layers of her work evoke layers of being, some disturbing, yes, but ultimately transcending such disturbance to “come full circle” with compassion and beauty.
In this extended Artists Telling Stories Podcasts trailer, please join Austin Tichenor, Aline Smithson, Joe Harjo, Vincent Valdez, Jay Tolson, Alicia Olatuja, and Jim Lavilla-Havelin in discovering the importance of stories, the language of our humanity, and the transformative power of art. Artists Telling Stories Podcasts draw out human stories in the hope that in their telling, artists will offer a new story of our shared humanity, bringing all of us closer together.
Discover Anatomy of a Photo
In this Anatomy of a Photo, photographer Steve Bliss shares his story of collaboration with painter friend John Hull, as Steve’s photographs comes full circle and uses, not only his boys, now adults, but also “graphic information” around images, something he explored as a very young artist.
In this Anatomy of a Photo, photographer Steve Bliss recounts how, when they were young, his two boys became his photographic subjects and how he realized that they were stand-ins for him or, as he says, vice versa. In any case, it’s part of the joy and drama of being father who was once also a child.