Issue 33 | June 2025

Welcome to the early summer edition of Miaaw Monthly for June 2025, courtesy of our newsletter provider Beehiiv.com.

This month has only two podcasts in it, and we want to begin by explaining why.

It all started in mid-April, when John Phillips interviewed Sophie and Owen for an article in the forthcoming Community Arts Collection at the Museum of Unrest (and you hopefully heard all about that in the Common Practice podcast that came out on May 23). He raised the question of how potential listeners might best navigate the 283 podcasts we currently have available at miaaw.net. This is an issue that we had already recognised. We answered that we had simply not had enough time to create the kind of thematic guides to the podcasts that we imagined, and we would need to stop creating new podcasts to find the time to do this properly.

Afterwards we realised that, by a lucky but unplanned coincidence, a number of long running series ended in May. We talked at length and decided that we should cut back temporarily on the number of podcasts we create and devote some time during the summer period (when people tend to be otherwise occupied) devising some thematic collections of existing podcasts, introduced by short explanatory essays (or short explanatory podcasts!)

To tide you over this lacuna, for the next couple of months Meanwhile on an Abandoned Bookshelf, on the first Friday of the month, will contain suggestions for unlikely summer reading. So if you had intended to relax on the beach with a Miaaw podcast you will now be able to relax on the very same beach with a real book in your actual hand, suggested by a Miaaw podcast.

We will return to full strength in the autumn with an array of weekly podcasts, including one new series and one returning series.

Have as happy a summer as you find possible.

PODCASTS FOR JUNE 2025

A THOUSAND WORDS

THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD

USDAC

The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture have just posted that

The illustration above comes from the first project in the Vital Conversations series. You can find out more about the series if you click here.

GERRY’S POMPEII

For over 30 years, Gerard ‘Gerry’ Dalton (1935-2019) worked privately in West London, creating hundreds of artworks and transforming his unassuming ground floor flat, garden and the adjoining bank of the Grand Union canal into an extraordinary and singular visionary environment.

This was the parallel world of an intensely private extrovert.

Although Gerry was well known by his neighbours and was a loving presence on his street, the full extent of his work was only uncovered following his death in 2019. Following an incredible campaign to save this exceptional Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), Gerry’s home was transferred back to Genesis Notting Hill housing association in 2020.

Whilst this is an extremely sad loss, we are working to maintain the extensive 50-metre long mural with hand-hewn topiary and the 50 sculptures that Gerry created on the canal bank. This public artwork can be viewed from Meanwhile Gardens on the opposite side of the canal.

You can find out much more about Gerry’s Pompeii if you click here.

THIS MONTH’S NEWSLETTER TO FOLLOW

Policies for Convivencia is a newsletter by Tommi Laitio, featuring (in his words) “clever policies for co-existence and the people behind them. The Latin American notion of convivencia, understood as a capability to co-exist across differences, encapsulates the ideal state for public life where the parties do not strive to resolve differences but have the ability and willingness for pragmatic solutions”.

In the latest issue he writes that “I have the opportunity to tick off one thing from my library nerd bucket list: Dokk1 in Aarhus, Denmark (see photo). Dokk1 was one of the main inspirations for Helsinki’s Central Library Oodi.

The Next Library conference, organized by the staff of Aarhus libraries, is the library event I have heard most praise for. People love it for its compact size and high level of engagement. I love the idea that this international innovation event is organized by the staff of this public institution, a public library, in a library”.

You can subscribe to Policies for Convivencia if you click here.

UPDATE: MUSEUM OF UNREST

Following the interview with John Phillips on the Common Practice episode last month, has sent us a list of what’s happening in the coming months at the Museum of Unrest.

• June: Community Arts Collection

• September: Feature about the Museum of Unrest in Left Cultures magazine

• September: Right to Protest exhibition collaboration with Greatorex St Studios 

• Later in the autumn: Mapping Africa (taking place 140 years after the Berlin Conference)

• 2026: Dark Matter Collection

• 2026: Architecture of Play Collection

John would be very happy to hear from you if you have any contributions you would like to make to any of these events, or any suggestions about possible future collections.

FEEDBACK: MIAAW MONTHLY

As usual, we continue to hope that you will send us something that you want to include in Miaaw Monthly, or something that you want to suggest for the podcasts, by emailing us at [email protected]. We will be happy to include your news and suggestions here and hunt down the topics you want to hear in the podcasts.

The MIAAW REVIEW

The second edition of The Miaaw Review is still stuck in the post. It will arrive during the summer, which since it is a quarterly newsletter is not too late.

If you would like to see the second issue of The Miaaw Review when it finally arrives then please subscribe by clicking this link.

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