Episode 4: Aria mispronounces Brian’s last name and learns the correct pronunciation of assemblage

Brian Lee Whisenhunt, Executive Director, The Rockwell Museum

Aria and Brian’s friendship is so new that Aria mispronounced his last name in the first take of their podcast interview! They only met a few years ago but (to Aria, at least) it feels like they’ve been hanging out and working on projects together for a bazillion years. Both museum nerds (sorry, Brian), they met at a Museum Association of New York conference and have been tracking on each other ever since. 

Brian Lee Whisenhunt is a fourth-generation Okie and the first member of his family to live this far north since the mid-1740s. His culinary roots are Southern and country cooking he learned from his grandmothers, highly educated and adaptable women who were raised in rural Oklahoma and West Virginia, and he loves to prepare recipes from the repertoire of both. A vegetarian for over 20 years, Brian enjoys creating twists on old recipes and is always interested in learning about new cuisines, ingredients and culinary history as evidenced by his every-expanding cookbook collection currently numbering over 200 volumes. 

In addition to cooking, Brian is an artist who creates collage and assemblage works from found images and objects. He is passionate about seeing what people create, whether it’s art, food, fiction, poetry, interiors, fashion, design…anything! He and his husband Mitchell compete professionally as entertainers and love to throw dinners and other parties for friends and family. They are obsessive collectors with a variety of interests including mid-20th century German porcelain, 1970s dayglow Japanese banks, cookbooks (see above), art in a variety of media, Pyrex, decorative tins, figurines of the Saints to name a few. They love exploring the amazing parks and trails in New York State and can be spotted on most weekends hiking somewhere with their dogs Stella Josephine Parker and Nova Delphine Parker, the Parker Sisters. When not in the kitchen or out on the trails, Brian serves as the executive director of The Rockwell Museum.

You can learn more about Brian Lee’s good work here:

https://rockwellmuseum.org/

You’ll have to wait til he announces a show before finding out more about his art!