Floods and art, Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries, Tom Rosenthal

With Italy set to declare a state of national emergency in Venice after the Unesco world heritage site was engulfed by a 6ft 'acqua alta', flooding its historic basilica and many other sites of great historic interest, art critic Jonathan Jones discusses the cultural significance of the imminent threat from flood and fire and what is being done to protect the city’s invaluable architectural and artistic heritage. And John Wilson talks to artist Katie Paterson about the metaphorical representation of environmental disasters in art and the responsibility amongst artists in raising awareness of current climatical concerns.

On Saturday the world’s largest galleries devoted to the history of medicine open at the Science Museum in London. Surprisingly, perhaps, there is a lot of art involved in medicine, with imaginatively-designed sculptural devices and equipment. Major new artworks have been commissioned for the new galleries too. John Wilson talks to the artists Marc Quinn, Studio Roso and Eleanor Crook, as well as Sir Ian Blatchford, the Science Museum’s director.

Tom Rosenthal is the musician whose songs are used on the new Radio 4 podcast Tunnel 29, the extraordinary true story of the escape tunnel dug under the Berlin Wall in 1962. Tom performs How This Came To Be live and discusses building a successful pop career outside of the mainstream music industry.

Presenter John Wilson
Producer Jerome Weatherald