Victoria Lautman

Victoria Lautman is a Chicago-based broadcast journalist, writer, interviewer and lecturer. Her focus is on all forms of art and culture, including architecture, design, and literature, and she frequently writes and speaks about India.

Lautman received an M.A. in art history from George Washington University, and a B.A. in anthropology and art history from the University of New Mexico. She attended Merton College at Oxford University for archaeological field training, and following graduate school was employed by the Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden for four years.

In 2004, Lautman created Chicago's premier author-interview series, Writers on the Record with Victoria Lautman, a free, hour-long interview taped each month before a live audience and which aired for six years on 98.7WFMT radio. Authors included Junot Diaz, Edward P. Jones, Elizabeth Strout, Louise Erdrich, Frank McCourt, Michael Cunningham, Augusten Burroughs, Edwidge Danticat, Peter Carey, Anne Lamott, Martin Amis, Russell Banks, Richard Price, and Mary Gaitskill, among dozens of others. These interviews are available at www.victorialautman.com

Prior to inaugurating this series, Lautman was a featured host and contributor on Chicago Public Radio for two decades beginning as an arts reviewer in 1984. She eventually hosted the arts and culture magazine series "Artistic License" that aired weekly for eight years, following which she became a regular interviewer and contributor to the station on a wide variety of subjects. Her humorous essays on day-to-day life were also a regular feature. She continues to be a featured presenter for the Chicago Humanities Festival, interviewing Jonathan Lethem, Lady Antonia Fraser, Amitav Ghosh, and others.

As a print journalist, Victoria Lautman has been Chicago Editor for magazines such as Metropolitan Home, Art+Auction, Architectural Record, and House & Garden, and a contributing editor for Chicago magazine. She’s also been a frequent contributor to the Chicago Tribune, and has written for many other magazines and newspapers, including the Indian editions of Vogue, GQ and The HIndu newspaper. Her non-fiction book, The New Tattoo, was published in 1994. She is a periodic blogger for The Huffington Post and has contributed to ArchDaily.com.

On television, Lautman has appeared on Chicago stations WTTW, WBBM and WMAQ, as a segment host and contributor.

Lautman is also known as an India expert, traveling frequently to the subcontinent where she's documented over one hundred of the country's unique, ancient stepwells. These subterranean edifices are largely unknown, and Lautman has lectured frequently on topic around the country. Her additional lectures about an insider's guide to India have been very popular.

Lautman sits on the board of the Chicago Children's Advocacy Center and the Architecture & Design Society of Chicago's Art Institute. She is a committee member of Human Rights Watch in Chicago.

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