Taking art to the streets of London

BBC Learning EnglishPeople and PlacesTaking art to the streets of LondonAmber: Hello, I’m Amber 1 and you’re listening tobbclearningenglish.comIn People and Places today, we meet the director of theNational Gallery in London. The gallery is home to one of thegreatest collections of Western European painting in theworld. But, instead of a tour of the gallery, we walk withCharles Saumarez-Smith around the streets of Soho and CoventGarden – two lively parts of London famous for adult shops,Italian cafes and the Royal Opera House.
　　Why the walk? Well, over the summer, the National Gallery isputting 44 life- size, framed paintings on the walls ofalleyways, shops and cafes in Soho and Covent Garden. Thesearen’t the real paintings, of course, but copies,‘reproductions’, or ‘versions’ of the real things.
　　Here’s Charles now. Notice he uses the expression ‘i.e.’
　　– an abbreviation 2 of‘that is to say’ or ‘in other words’, which you are morelikely to see written than hear spoken. And he explains thepurpose of displaying these copies of valuable paintings. Hesays many, many people feel shy about going into the NationalGallery, they feel ‘inhibited 3’, and they shouldn’t!
　　As you listen, try to catch the adverb Charles uses todescribe the ‘high-quality reproductions’.
　　Charles Saumarez-SmithWhat we’re doing is putting up pretty high-qualityreproductions. To be honest, I’ve only just seen this forthe first time, but it’s a way of bringing works of art, orversions of them – i.e.
　　reproductions – from the walls of the National Gallery outinto the streets. And what I’ve discovered during the fiveyears I’ve been director is that there are many, many peoplewho are inhibited about coming in to the National Gallery andshouldn’t be. It’s free to go in, anybody can go in, butpeople don’t necessarily know that, and so bringing them outonto the streets is a way of indicating it.
　　Amber: Did you catch it? Charles says the reproductions are‘pretty high-quality’ –‘pretty’ here means ‘fairly’. Fairly high-quality.
　　Listen again and notice the expression ‘to be honest’ –this is a useful way of indicating that what are about to sayis what you really feel.
　　Charles Saumarez-SmithWhat we’re doing is putting up pretty high-qualityreproductions. To be honest, I’ve only just seen this forthe first time, but it’s a way of bringing works of art, orversions of them – i.e. reproductions – from the walls ofthe National Gallery out into the streets. And what I’vediscovered during the five years I’ve been director is thatthere are many, many people who are inhibited about coming into the National Gallery and shouldn’t be. It’s free to goin, anybody can go in, but people don’t necessarily knowthat, and so bringing them out onto the streets is a way ofindicating it.
　　Amber: So the reproductions on the streets are like awonderful advertisement for the gallery. And Charles hopesthat when people see the reproductions, they might want to goto the gallery. After all, the pictures in the NationalGallery belong to the public and you don’t have to pay to goin and see them.
　　Next, Charles explains how they chose which paintings toreproduce fordisplay on the streets. Try to catch one or two of the waysthey put together this special ‘list’.
　　Charles Saumarez-SmithEssentially, we’ve selected the main works from thecollection and the best-known. I mean, one of the things we’
　　ve done is look at the things we, ourselves, regard as – ininverted commas – ‘the best’, but there’re also workswhich we know are very popular because they’re bought aspostcards and reproductions, and as I understand it, the listis an amalgamation 5 of the best of the best.
　　Amber: So, they chose, they ‘selected’, ‘the main works’
　　from the gallery’s ‘collection’
　　– the principal works, the greatest in importance. And also‘the best-known’
　　paintings, and the ones people buy postcards of in thegallery shop!
　　Listen again and notice Charles uses the expression ‘ininverted commas’. Inverted 4 commas are speech marks, andCharles uses this expression tohighlight the fact that he is giving just one view of whatmakes a great painting! Oh, and ‘an amalgamation’ is theresult of putting things together, ofcombining them.
　　Charles Saumarez-SmithEssentially, we’ve selected the main works from thecollection and the best-known. I mean, one of the things we’
　　ve done is look at the things we, ourselves, regard as – ininverted commas – ‘the best’, but there’re also workswhich we know are very popular because they’re bought aspostcards and reproductions, and as I understand it, the listis an amalgamation of the best of the best.
　　Amber: Now here’s a list of the language we focussed on inthe programme today. to be honest – this expressionindicates that what you are about to say, you really meanto be inhibited about something – to be shy about somethingin inverted commas – you can use this expression tohighlight the fact that you are giving just one view ofsomething‘the best of the best’ – means ‘the very, very best’!