Bad at Sports Episode 959: Shane McAdams

This week Duncan MacKenzie and Ryan Peter Miller head north to the Door County Contemporary Art Fair to sit down with artist, curator, writer, gallerist, and all-around art evangelist Shane McAdams.

Broadcasting from a gazebo in Door County, Wisconsin, the conversation ranges from the weather, custard, and pontoon boats to larger questions about why contemporary art struggles to reach broader publics, why the Midwest needs more artist-run infrastructure, and how we might create healthier cultural ecosystems.

McAdams makes the case for a bigger, messier, more porous art world—one where commercial galleries, nonprofits, academia, collectors, artists, and curious newcomers all coexist.

This is a conversation about building bridges: between Chicago and Minneapolis, between contemporary art and regional audiences, between artists and the merely art-curious. It is also a reminder that art remains one of the few places where genuine meaning-making and community formation can still occur.

Name Drops

Shane McAdams https://www.shanemcadams.com/

Door County Contemporary Art Fair https://www.doorcountycontemporary.com/

Real Tinsel Gallery https://www.realtinsel.com/

Saint Kate – The Arts Hotel https://www.saintkatearts.com/

Peninsula School of Art https://www.peninsulaschoolofart.org/

Claire Ashley https://clairehelenashley.com/

David Letterman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Letterman

Marcel Duchamp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp

Robert Ryman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ryman

James Audubon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_James_Audubon

Mark Glimcher / Pace Gallery https://www.pacegallery.com/