Open Studio

About Open Studio

Hello and Welcome to Open Studio, a podcast from the Arts Council of Princeton spotlighting the creative minds shaping our cultural landscape. We sit down with artists, makers, and creative thinkers from our community to talk about the work they do and the ideas that inspire them. Co-hosted by me, Adam Welch Executive Director and the Director of Development and Community Engagement Liza Peck, Open Studio invites you into the stories behind the art.

Publisher

Arts Council of Princeton

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

28 May 2026

Latest episode

1 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

7 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   1 Oct 2026

   Open Studio with Jessica Durrie, Vol. 1 Ep. 7, September 10, 2026

   Hello and Welcome to Open Studio, a podcast from the Arts Council of Princeton spotlighting the creative minds shaping our cultural landscape. We sit down with artists, makers, and creative thinkers from our community to talk about the work they do and the ideas that inspire them. Co-hosted by me, Adam Welch Executive Director and the Director of Development and Community Engagement Liza Peck, Open Studio invites you into the stories behind the art. Today it is our very good fortune to be speaking with the one and only Jessica Durie. Jessica Durrie is the co-founder and now sole owner of Small World Coffee, the beloved independent coffee company (with its own roastery and two storefronts) that has been a cornerstone of downtown Princeton, New Jersey, for more than three decades. Since taking ownership, Jessica has continued the company's tradition of creating welcoming spaces where exceptional coffee and community come together. Under her leadership, Small World Coffee has remained committed to sourcing high-quality coffees while fostering a workplace culture centered on kindness and collaboration. Jessica believes that a great coffee shop is about much more than what's in the cup—it's about creating a place where people feel connected and at home. A Princeton resident and business leader, Jessica has guided Small World Coffee through periods of growth, change, and expansion. Her approach blends a deep appreciation for craftsmanship with a forward-looking perspective on entrepreneurship, employee development, and community engagement. She has helped strengthen Small World's reputation not only as a destination for outstanding coffee but also as an organization that invests in people, from its staff to its customers and the broader local community. Jessica's commitment to the Princeton community extends beyond the café. A longtime champion of the Arts Council of Princeton, she served as a Trustee from 1996–1997 and again from 2008–2014. Today, she continues her service as a member of the Arts Council's Advisory Board, sharing her experience, insight, and support for the organization's mission. She also keeps the Arts Council team energized by generously donating four pounds of Small World Coffee's signature Jet Fuel blend each month—fueling creativity one cup at a time. Jessica is passionate about the role that small businesses play in shaping vibrant neighborhoods. She understands the challenges and rewards of leading an independent company in an evolving marketplace, balancing operational excellence with a genuine commitment to relationships. On today's episode, Jessica shares insights from her journey as a business owner, the philosophy behind Small World Coffee's enduring success, and the lessons she's learned about leadership, resilience, and building a company culture that people want to be part of. We'll explore how coffee can serve as a catalyst for connection, why community remains at the heart of her work, and what it takes to preserve the character of a cherished local institution while continuing to evolve. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a coffee enthusiast, or simply someone who values the importance of community, Jessica's story offers thoughtful perspectives on leadership, hospitality, and the lasting impact that a locally owned business can have on the people it serves. So please join me and Liza Peck as we speak with Jessica in our Studio at the Arts Council of Princeton. To support this podcast go to our ⁠donation page⁠ (https://webforms.eleoonline.com/FormDatas/188/4162951a-59d0-4360-9143-9dd61c829b0f) to make a gift or become a recurring donor. Please "like" our podcast and subscribe!

2. 

   1 Sept 2026

   Open Studio with Aaron Fisher, Vol. 1 Ep. 6, May 4, 2026

   Today it is our very good fortune to be speaking with the one and only Aaron Fisher. Aaron Fisher’s story begins in Princeton New Jersey, where creativity wasn’t just encouraged—it was inevitable. As his mother recalls, from the moment he could hold a crayon, Aaron was already expressing himself through art. That early spark was nurtured by his sister Pat, an artist in her own right, who recognized his gift and pushed him to refine it. Aaron went on to study Marketing, Art, and Design at Middlesex County College, building a foundation that would support both his artistic vision and professional journey. But his talents extend beyond the canvas—Aaron also spent 12 years performing with the Grammy Award–winning disco group The Trammps, contributing to the legacy of the original group during his tenure. Today, Aaron channels his passion into both creation and mentorship. He serves as the Visual Arts mentor for the New Brunswick branch of ACT-SO, a program dedicated to inspiring and elevating high-achieving African-American high school students through the arts and academics and serves as a trustee of the Arts Council ofPrinceton since 2022. Working primarily on canvas and wood, Aaron uses airbrush with acrylic paint, inks, and colored pencils to explore the human face. His work is photorealism—layering color, capturing nuance, and breathing life into every subject. His artistic mission is simple: to create work that not only captures likeness but evokes feeling. He wants viewers to pause, look closer, and connect emotionally with what they see. Aaron currently resides in Franklin Park, New Jersey, with his wife of 33 years, Angela, and their daughter, Kylie—continuing to create, inspire, and leave a lasting impression through every stroke. So please join me and Liza Peck as we speak with Aaron in our studios at the Arts Councilof Princeton. To support this podcast go to our donation page (https://webforms.eleoonline.com/FormDatas/188/4162951a-59d0-4360-9143-9dd61c829b0f) to make a gift or become a recurring donor. Please "like" our podcast and subscribe!

3. 

   1 Aug 2026

   Open Studio with Andy Golden, Vol. 1 Ep. 5, May 1, 2026

   Andy Golden is recognized as the longtime President of the Princeton University Investment Company (Princo), where he spent three decades shaping one of the most successful university endowments in the world. But beyond the numbers and the institutional impact, there’s a lesser-known dimension to Golden’s life - one that reveals a more personal and creative side: his work as a photographer and philosopher. Golden joined PRINCO in 1995. At that time the endowment was valued at $3.5B and today it is a whopping $35B. Under his leadership, Princeton’s portfolio expanded dramatically, more than tenfold. In 2021, he and his team achieved a 46.9% return. Embracing a strategy that emphasized alternative investments such as venture capital, private equity, and hedge funds. His approach was grounded in long-term thinking, helping the endowment grow into an engine supporting the university’s teaching, research, and financial aid programs. Yet while Golden built a reputation in global finance, photography is a counterbalance - a quieter pursuit. His interest in photography speaks to a deeper curiosity about the world, one that extends beyond markets and into moments, light, and human experience. Where investing demands forecasting, photography invites presence and a different careful looking. It’s a practice that requires patience, observation, and a willingness to see things from unexpected angles, he was after all a philosophy major in school. Golden’s engagement with photography aligns with a broader pattern among leaders who cultivate creative outlets alongside analytical careers. One might think about Winston Churchill who was an avid painter, Jimmy Carter too was an amateur painter, Queen Victoria has been said to keep a sketchbook at hand, even George Bush has proven to be a talented painter. For Golden, the camera becomes another lens through which to interpret the complexity of the world. Before his tenure at Princeton, Golden developed his investment foundation at Duke Management Company and in the investments office at Yale University. He studied philosophy at Duke, an academic background that hints at his lifelong interest in big questions and careful reasoning, and later earned his masters in public policy and management from the Yale School of Management. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst, underscoring his technical expertise in finance. Once asked if there was a goose hiding in the offices of Princo...Golden said “I have to be silent on that,” he says, “Silence in Golden.” Lets see if we can get him to open up about this and more! So please join me and Liza Peck as we speak with Andy in our studios at the Arts Council of Princeton . To support this podcast go to our donation page (https://webforms.eleoonline.com/FormDatas/188/4162951a-59d0-4360-9143-9dd61c829b0f) to make a gift or become a recurring donor. Please "like" our podcast and subscribe!

4. 

   1 Jul 2026

   Open Studio with Aziz El Badaoui, Vol. 1 Ep. 4, April 28, 2026

   Today it is our very good fortune to be speaking with the one and only Aziz El Badaoui. (ba dow wee) In a town known for its intellect and tradition, Aziz El Badaoui has carved out a space where creativity, identity, and craftsmanship intersect. Based in Princeton, New Jersey, Aziz is more than a hairstylist and owner of a prestigious highly sought after salon (https://casa-aziz.com/)—he is an artist working in an ever-evolving medium. Aziz’s journey into hairstyling began with a fascination for transformation—the subtle yet powerful way appearance can shape how a person feels, moves, and presents themselves to the world. Each client who sits in his chair becomes part of a collaborative process, where listening is as essential as technique, and where the end result is as much about storytelling as it is about style. Aziz approaches his work with a global perspective and a contemporary sensibility. He is attuned not only to trends, but to the deeper currents beneath them—questions of identity, individuality, and self-expression. His work often reflects a balance between timeless form and modern edge, allowing each look to feel both personal and relevant. In this way, he operates at the intersection of art and everyday life, bringing high-level creative thinking into an intimate, human-scale experience. What sets Aziz apart is his deep desire to train the next generation. Unlike most salons and businesses, Aziz spends time and money to train, educate, and invest in his stylists continued education. Where others might see hair as a finished product, he sees potential—shape, texture. But the question is Aziz’s approach akin to Michelangelo or Jackson Pollock. Both artists are engaged in the same pursuit: uncovering something that already exists, just by different means. Michelangelo reveals by stripping away excess, he sees the angel in the marble and carves until its free; Pollock reveals by immersing himself until the unnecessary falls away through instinct and repetition–he drips art into existence. Within Princeton’s evolving cultural landscape, Aziz represents a new kind of creative voice—one that challenges traditional boundaries between fine art and applied craft. His studio becomes a kind of informal cultural space, where conversations about aesthetics and transformation unfold organically. In this environment, hairstyling becomes more than a service; it becomes an experience, a moment of reinvention, and, at times, a quiet act of empowerment. Through his hands, hairstyling becomes a medium of expression, a vehicle for confidence, and a reflection of the diverse, creative spirit that continues to define Princeton and beyond. To support this podcast go to our donation page (https://webforms.eleoonline.com/FormDatas/188/4162951a-59d0-4360-9143-9dd61c829b0f) to make a gift or become a recurring donor. Please "like" our podcast and subscribe!

5. 

   1 Jun 2026

   Open Studio with Ghada Amer, Vol. 1 Ep. 2, March 27, 2026

   Ghada Amer⁠ (https://ghadaamer.com/about-ghada-amer/) was born in Cairo (Egypt) in 1963. In 1974, her parents relocated to France where she began her artistic training ten years later at Villa Arson, Nice, France. She currently lives and works between New York and Paris and has exhibited among others at the Venice Biennale, the Sydney Biennale, the Whitney Biennial, and the ⁠Brooklyn Museum⁠ (https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/). “I believe that all women should like their bodies and use them as tools of seduction,” Amer stated; and in her well-known erotic embroideries, she at once rejects oppressive laws set in place to govern women’s attitudes toward their bodies and repudiates first-wave feminist theory that the body must be denied to prevent victimization. By depicting explicit sexual acts with the delicacy of needle and thread, their significance assumes a tenderness that simple objectification ignores. Ghada Amer continuously allows herself to explore the dichotomies of an uneasy world and confronts the language of hostility and finality with unsettled narratives of longing and love. Ghada Amer’s work addresses first and foremost the ambiguous, transitory nature of the paradox that arises when searching for concrete definitions of east and west, feminine and masculine, art and craft. Through her paintings, sculptures and public garden projects, Amer takes traditional notions of cultural identity, abstraction, and religious fundamentalism and turns them on their heads. Over the course of her career, Amer has expanded her practice into ceramics, bronze, garden installations, and public art, continuing to explore the tension between beauty and provocation. Her engagement with ceramics has deepened in recent years, including time working at ⁠Greenwich House Pottery⁠ (https://greenwichhouse.org/pottery/), a historic center for ceramic arts in New York City. There, she immersed herself in the technical and communal aspects of clay, further exploring the medium’s physical demands and conceptual possibilities. Her ceramic works mark a significant evolution: shifting from the flatness of canvas to the tactile, unstable qualities of clay. In these pieces, she engages with the hierarchy between fine art and craft, using materials historically associated with domestic labor to question systems of value within the art world. The physicality of ceramics—its susceptibility to pressure, collapse, and transformation through fire—mirrors the thematic concerns that have long driven her work, including control, vulnerability, and resistance. More recently, Amer has also spent time working and engaging with the community at the ⁠Arts Council of Princeton⁠ (https://artscouncilofprinceton.org/about/) in Princeton. This phase reflects an ongoing collaboration with executive Director Adam Welch. To support this podcast go to ⁠Arts Council of Princeton's ⁠ (https://webforms.eleoonline.com/FormDatas/188/4162951a-59d0-4360-9143-9dd61c829b0f)donation page to make a gift or become a recurring donor.

6. 

   29 May 2026

   Open Studio with Elizabeth Margulis, Vol. 1 Ep. 3, April 20, 2026

   So, What happens in our mind when music plays? Not just what we hear—but what we see, what we remember, and what we feel unfolding inside. Today, we’re diving into a question that seems simple on the surface but opens into something deeper: how does music shape the inner world of the human mind? Our guide on this journey is Princeton professor Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, (https://www.elizabethmargulis.com/) a scholar whose work sits at a fascinating crossroads—where music meets psychology, neuroscience, and imagination. She’s not just asking why we like certain songs or how rhythm works. She’s asking something far more intriguing: when you listen to music, why does your mind start telling stories? Elizabeth is a leading scholar in the interdisciplinary field of music cognition, serving as professor of music at Princeton University. At the core of her research is a deceptively simple question: what happens in the mind when we listen to music? Her studies show that when people listen to instrumental music, they often generate vivid mental narratives. While these narratives feel personal, her work demonstrates that listeners frequently produce strikingly similar interpretations—especially when they share cultural backgrounds. This insight challenges the common idea that music is a “universal language,” suggesting instead that musical meaning is shaped by shared cultural experience. Across cultures and across listeners, music can produce patterns of shared imagination—what she calls a kind of “collective inner storytelling.” But here’s the twist: those shared experiences aren’t universal. They’re shaped by culture, memory, and the environments we grow up in. In other words, music doesn’t just express emotion—it helps construct meaning, and that meaning lives somewhere between the individual and the group. Even more, there are implications beyond the lab. From understanding Alzheimer’s and dementia to exploring how music creates social bonds—even among strangers—this research points to music as more than art. It’s a kind of cognitive technology, shaping how we remember, imagine, and connect. Because the next time a song gets stuck in your head, or a melody seems to carry you somewhere else, the real question might not be “why do I like this?” but “what is my mind doing with this sound?” Let’s find out. To support this podcast go to Arts Council of Princeton's (https://webforms.eleoonline.com/FormDatas/188/4162951a-59d0-4360-9143-9dd61c829b0f)donation page to make a gift or become a recurring donor!

7. 

   28 May 2026

   Open Studio with Chris Harford, Vol. 1. Ep. 1, March 23, 2026

   The first episode of Open Studio features an interview taped at ⁠Soul Selects⁠ (https://soulselects.com/about) studios in Hopewell, NJ., with ⁠Chris Harford⁠ (https://chrisharford.com/). Chris's roots in the Princeton arts community run deep, going back to the early 1980s when a vibrant mix of local culture, independent music, and community support helped shape a generation of artists. As a student at Princeton High School, he was already performing locally, and by the time he was in college, he was touring with his band Three Colors, playing across the Northeast and opening for acts like The English Beat and Bow Wow Wow. Those early years set the tone for a career defined not just by performance, but by a deep belief in music as a shared, community-driven experience. Over the decades, Chris has become a central figure in the Princeton - New Hope music scene, performing in countless venues, from Small World Coffee and John & Peter’s to festivals and stages across the region. He’s collaborated with an extraordinary range of musicians, including members of the Henry Rollins Band and Ween, and has built a reputation as a “songwriter’s songwriter,” admired for his originality, independence, and ever-evolving sound. His work has been recognized in publications like Rolling Stone, Billboard, The New York Times, and People Magazine, reflecting a reach that extends far beyond the local scene. In addition to his music, Harford is also a visual artist, with his paintings and mixed media work exhibited throughout the region. Whether through sound or image, his creative practice is rooted in experimentation, collaboration, and a constant drive to explore. More than forty years into his career, Chris Harford remains a vital and evolving presence, an artist who has helped shape the cultural fabric of this community while continuing to push his work in new directions. To support this podcast go to ⁠Arts Council of Princeton⁠ (https://webforms.eleoonline.com/FormDatas/188/4162951a-59d0-4360-9143-9dd61c829b0f) donation page to make a gift or become a recurring donor.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

6 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.