Art on the Radio

You'd think radio was a strictly aural medium. But WNYC, New York's public radio station, is proving otherwise, with a one-of-a-kind online exhibition of visual art created in response to the Iraq war.

One doesn't typically look to a radio station for visual art, but, then again, WNYC is not a typical radio station. WNYC, rather, is New York City's public station, broadcasting commerical-free and with listener support from the city's towering Municipal Building behind City Hall. A month or so ago, midday host Brian Lehrer went to some of the anti-war protests in the city, and he was impressed with the witty and clever banners on display. He asked his listeners to call or email with their favorites, and, soon enough, enough people had submitted not just recollections but emailed photos that he created a web page on WNYC's site to showcase the images. The folks on the station's web team were discussing this one day, and they came up with a new idea: Asking listeners to submit their war-inspired artwork. "Brian pitched it on the air," recalls Bill Swersey, WNYC's director of interactive media, "and suddenly submissions started pouring in." Hundreds arrived within days of Lehrer's March 24 request, and soon thereafter the site was live. There are photos and scanned drawings and pictures of sculptures and some digital art—even Flash animations. Swersey's team has curated the exhibit, choosing "stuff that was evocative," he says, "that spoke to us in one way or another." You can guess the political message of most of the artworks—they were created by public radio listeners, after all—but that makes them no less memorable, some striking, some beautiful, some very funny. A few samples appear below, and the whole exhibit is available at www.wnyc.org/artofwar/. "People had no other place to send these but us," Swersey says, justifiably proud of his project. "It was great."

See all the artwork in WNYC's exhibit at www.wnyc.org/artofwar/.

Jesse Oxfeld is the editor-in-chief of mediabistro.com.