Our latest episode is now available

Our winter 2025 season continues with a special collaborative episode with Lucy Branch, bronze conservator, restorer, and host of the Sculpture Vulture podcast - a show we’ve long admired and are delighted to share with you.

Recorded as a conversation between Lucy and Sarah, this episode explores sculpture not only as an art form, but as something we look out for as we return to places over time.

Listen to Lucy Branch & Sarah Monk: The Pull of Pietrasanta

Lucy is a Director at Antique Bronze (UK) and an expert in the conservation of public sculpture. Her work includes caring for some of the UK’s most recognisable monuments, including Nelson’s Column, Eros, and Cleopatra’s Needle, alongside sculptures by artists connected to Pietrasanta such as Henry Moore and Helaine Blumenfeld.

With a background in Art History and Material Studies from University College, and a Masters in Conservation from the Royal College of Art and the V&A, Lucy brings both her passion, and a deeply material-led perspective to sculpture.

In conversation, Lucy and Sarah discuss the idea of sculptural tourism: how sculpture can be a special focus when travelling, or even a destination in its own right. They reflect on works in places such as Florence and Pietrasanta, on memorials and monuments, and the pieces that stay with us long after we’ve encountered them.

Lucy explains her long-held idea of a sculptural passport, a way of recording not just what we’ve seen, but how sculpture makes us feel. Sarah shares her own connection to Pietrasanta, first visiting as a tourist before going on to produce Materially Speaking to highlight the stories within the town’s international creative community, marble quarries, and foundries.

Episode 67 – Lucy Branch & Sarah Monk: The Pull of Pietrasanta

This is our first feed drop, where one podcast shares an episode directly into another podcast’s feed. Next year Sarah will invite Lucy of Sculpture Vulture back to Materially Speaking to tell us more about caring for bronze sculptures and the importance of maintaining them.

In the coming months, Materially Speaking will also be sharing conversations with Japanese artist Ko Yamazaki, Yemisi Wilson, recorded at her favourite foundry in Pietrasanta, and an audio-video journey into the world of French artist Polles, whose home includes his own personal foundry.

Follow us on social media to see photos and videos of all the artists we have interviewed, and other arts news from Pietrasanta. On our website materiallyspeaking.com, on Instagram at materiallyspeakingpodcast, and on YouTube.

Enjoy listening.

Sarah Monk, producer, Materially Speaking