Guggenheim Collaborates with 99% Invisible Podcast on New Audio Companion to the Frank Lloyd Wright Building

To mark the occasion of the museum’s 60th anniversary, the Guggenheim will release a new audio guide about the architecture of the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed building, created in collaboration with the podcast 99% Invisible=1.3125rem. It will feature the podcast’s host, Roman Mars, in conversation with Guggenheim curators and staff as they delve into stories behind the iconic museum’s design, construction, and day-to-day operation. Visitors will hear in detail why installing art in the museum is a unique challenge and how Wright and his contractors pulled off the feat of constructing a spiral building. The new audio will be available for free on the Guggenheim’s Digital Guide, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, or at guggenheim.org/guide

In tandem with the museum’s audio, Mars and 99% Invisible—founding member of the Radiotopia podcast network from PRX—have produced an episode of the podcast about the Guggenheim Museum building, which will be released on October 22 across on-demand audio platforms and at 99percentinvisible.org. The full podcast will also be available on the Guggenheim’s platforms, including the Digital Guide, guggenheim.org, and soundcloud.com/guggenheimmuseum.

“To celebrate our 60th anniversary, we wanted to offer our visitors a contemporary, narrative audio companion to their experience of our building,” states Laura Kleger, Director, Interactive and Digital Media, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. “Through our work with 99% Invisible, we complemented the expertise of our staff with Roman Mars’s talent for inspiring curiousity about the designed world. We’re thrilled to have his tremendous storytelling skills scaffold this exploration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s design and the distinct considerations of running a museum within it.”

Says Mars, “It was such an honor to work with the team at the Guggenheim to create a different kind of audio tour that feels like walking through the building with an extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable friend, rather than with a formal architecture professor. They allowed me the freedom to take the greatness of the museum as a given and instead explore the quirks, modifications, and constraints that make it a dynamic, rich, and ever-evolving masterpiece.”

About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was established in 1937 and is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of modern and contemporary art through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The international constellation of museums includes the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; and the future Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. In 2019, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum celebrates 60 years as an architectural icon and “temple of spirit” where radical art and architecture meet. The museum is now among a group of eight Frank Lloyd Wright structures in the United States recently designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. To learn more about the museum and the Guggenheim’s activities around the world, visit guggenheim.org.

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