Anna Lina Litz

Conducting an interview

If possible, we try to invite presenting artists for short interviews in the weeks before their talk, which we can use as communication material so that interested visitors can already get to know them a little bit.

Interviews are a lot of fun, because you get to think about what you want to ask the artists, and most of the time they have really interesting and inspiring answers!

Contact the artist (on time)

As always, it's important to contact the artist on time so that you have time to edit, check with the artist and publish the interview before the event it's meant to help promote. Ideally email the artist you'd like to interview two weeks before the event to find a date for the interview.

Think of questions

As a rule, a maximum of five questions should be enough. Artists will likely talk about each question for a long time. It is good to think of questions relating directly to aspects of the artist's work, in general as well as specifically to the work they will be presenting about. Therefore it's important to do a little research on their background beforehand!

We usually start with a general “Tell us about yourself“ question, and end with a question about navigating art school and neurodivergence, to connect the new content to our previous programme about art education. Check out the examples below for what this can look like!

The interview itself

The interview usually takes between 30 and 45 minutes. You can schedule it in person at Mediamatic or online via Google Meets. If the artist comes by for an in-person interview, it's good to find a quiet space beforehand and offer them a glass of water etc. :)

At the start of the interview, check whether it's okay to record the conversation, and (if they say yes) record it so that you can later listen back and transcribe/edit!

Editing and publishing the interview

While editing, try to cut the word count down to a maximum of around 2000 words, ideally even shorter.

Before publishing on the website, send the finished draft to the artist so they can go over it and approve it. You can also give them a deadline, saying “If you don't respond by [date], we will assume that it's okay and publish it.“ Also send the draft to the A/artist team.

After you publish it, share your interview with the communication manager so they can use it for promoting the event!