OMMM: Our Museum Mindfulness Meditation

Getty’s podcast for kids and their families, If Objects Could Talk, is back for season 2! Listen as art leaves the museum vault and comes alive to share its own story. In this season, featuring objects from Getty's sculpture and decorative arts collection, each episode introduces listeners to the history, creation, and everyday use of incredible items like a rococo microscope, an inventive clock, and a majestic horse sculpture. Today, we’re sharing our episode on Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s sc

Ballet may look effortless and beautiful to audiences, but the experience for dancers can be quite different. In this final episode of the season, host Lilit Sadoyan speaks with New York Times dance critic Gia Kourlas about Edgar Degas’s pastel Waiting. In a wide-ranging conversation, the two discuss dancers’ experiences behind the scenes, how Kourlas approaches writing, and what makes a great experience at the theater. If you missed this week’s patience meditation inspired by Degas’s pastel,

How does your body feel when you wait? Slow down and explore your body’s experience of patience (and impatience) inspired by Edgar Degas’s enigmatic pastel drawing Waiting (about 1882). A dancer and an accompanying figure sit on a bench, their bodies bent forward in a state of fatigue. Rendered in pastel, with vivid streaks of color and variations in technique, Degas masterfully animates a scene that is otherwise still. This scene raises more questions than it answers: how are the two figures

Extreme facial expressions are the first thing many notice when they see a haka performance. It’s the same thing that people tend to notice with Getty’s sculpture of The Vexed Man, too. Haka is a traditional war dance of the Māori people, indigenous to New Zealand, and is now used in a wide range of ceremonies and sports events. In conversation with Lilit Sadoyan, Māori cultural practitioner and choreographer Amelia Butler explains the symbolic meaning of haka’s elements and how it can allow ac

Explore how deeply you can relax—by tensing each muscle in your body. This unusual exercise builds on Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s The Vexed Man (1771–83), a sculpture of a man with an exaggerated facial expression. From the protruding veins in the neck to the deeply furrowed brow, this alabaster sculpture captures the vexed expression of a middle-aged man. Part of a series of 49 sculptures created by Messerschmidt during the last 13 years of his life, each bust depicts a different, often extrem

Japanese chadō, or tea ceremony, is widely known for its beauty, precision, and meditative qualities. So how does that compare to the story told by artist Jean-Ettienne Liotard’s Still Life: Tea Set? UCLA Professor and chadō practitioner Michelle Liu Carriger explores the near-universal appeal of a good cup of tea enjoyed in good company, while highlighting the meditative and aesthetic qualities of both Japanese and European tea traditions. If you missed this week’s tea drinking meditation ins