Art over airwaves: New weekly podcast features ‘The Art You Missed’
Written by Sarah Ottney | Managing Editor | sottney@toledofreepress.com“The Art You Missed” is the focus of a new locally produced weekly podcast.
Co-hosts Fritz Byers and Sam Melden aim to draw attention to music, poetry, film and other art in danger of being overlooked due to the sheer volume available in the Internet age, Byers said.
“Because of this proliferation and the excitement of the new, there’s a danger that meritorious works of art will be forgotten or even current works of art will be missed just because there’s so much art to consume,” Byers said. “There’s at the same time a sense that what is current is unique and untethered from history and uninfluenced by art that has come before and our show is an effort to correct that misperception.”
Fritz Byers, left, and Sam Melden
A better understanding of art from the past can increase the enjoyment of present-day art, Byers said.
“We might like a great current English alt-folk group, but we believe that knowing about earlier iterations of English folk music — whether it’s the English folk revival of the ’70s or the post-World War I boom of folk music in Great Britain — it just provides more context and more understanding,” Byers said. “You might encounter art you really love that you’ve never seen before. That’s true for visual art and music and fiction and so forth.”
The pair started posting episodes online at artyoumissed.com in early May and are up to about 600 downloads per episode, including some overseas listeners, Melden said. The episodes, posted each Tuesday, are also available on iTunes.
“Here’s the beautiful thing about the Internet: It makes the international local and it makes the local international,” Melden said. “It’s really, really exciting in that regard. It’s coming out of Toledo but talking about the world.”
Byers and Melden are co-workers at Sylvania-based company Vintage Aerial, where Byers is president and CEO. Byers is also the longtime host and producer of Jazz Spectrum 91, WGTE’s weekly radio jazz anthology. However, “The Art You Missed” is a personal side project the pair pursues on their own time.
“We get together when we can find time, turn on the tape recorder and have a conversation,” Byers said. “It is intended as a live, spontaneous, unscripted conversation.”
The pair has organized a Kickstarter fundraising campaign that runs through June 30. So far, $2,705 has been pledged toward their $3,500 goal. If the goal is reached, the money would be used for better recording equipment and editing software with the goal of being able to record shows in coffee shops, schools or other community locations.
Melden, who is 27, said he hopes the show introduces younger listeners to art from before their time.
“I feel like my generation feels like we really know all there is to know about art, but the truth is we only know what we’ve been exposed to and there’s so much that comes before us that we might have missed,” Melden said. “Not even just our parents’ art, but our grandparents’ and our great-grandparents’, because that’s the foundation of the art that we enjoy and it’s naïve for us to ignore it.”
He also hopes older generations will learn something about present-day art as well as renew an interest in the art from their formative years.
“So a discovery and a rediscovery,” Melden said. “If that happens, then that’s fantastic.”
Byers said he hopes “The Art You Missed” helps listeners engage in art they love or are curious about.
“We hope our shows convey the vast diversity of art, the inexhaustible supply of intriguing art,” Byers said. “We hope people engage with us in an ongoing, free-form exploration of art and its meaning for us individually and its meaning for the culture.”
To listen to the podcast, donate to the Kickstarter campaign or learn more, visit artyoumissed.com.
Tags: Fritz Byers, Sam Melden, Star, The Art You Missed
