Last December I was able to attend a wonderful symposium at MoMA about a project that had taken four years to complete based on The Thomas Walther exhibit. It was attended by over 150 people, and included several presentations with a Q and A after each one.
In February of this year I went to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut to attend a symposium in conjunction with the wonderful Coney Island Exhibit. The curator Robin Jaffee Frank started off the day with an entertaining talk about how the exhibit came about, and highlighted some of the artists that are included. Among them are Morris Engel and Harold Feinstein.
I also attended the first Documentary Summit that Thom Powers organized which was held at the IFC Center in the Village, which was interesting. The opening night panel included award-winning filmmakers Barbara Kopple and D.A. Pennebaker. The summit highlighted a new project called www.indiecollect.com that Sandra Schulberg started to help identify and keep track of all independent films. It gave me some ideas and also inspiration for doing something similar with APAG members, and the millions of photographs that they have taken and represent.
The last event I recently attended was an informative panel at B & H Photo about archives titled “What Will Happen to Your Legacy? There were at least 40 photographers in attendance who had many questions afterwards for the panel regarding the future of their work.
Reconsidering the Object: Researching Interwar Photography in the Digital Age
December 12, 2014 – MoMA Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art announces Object: Photo. Modern Photographs: The Thomas Walther Collection 1909-1949, the result of a four-year collaborative project between the Museum’s departments of Photography and Conservation, with the participation of over two dozen leading international photography scholars and conservators, making it the most extensive effort to integrate conservation, curatorial and scholarly research efforts on photography to date.
Coney Island: An Intersection of Art and Identity
February 28, 2015 – Wadsworth Atheneum
Robin Jaffee Frank, Exhibition Curator, Chief Curator and Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, Wadsworth Atheneum. Panels included: Nightmares and Fantasties: Painting Coney Island, Race and Identity at Coney Island, Coney on the Silver Screen.
Documentary Preservation Summit
presented by ida & doc nyc 3/31/14 – 4/1/14
Keynote Panel: A Call to Action for Dcoumentary Preservation, moderated by Thom Powers and included Barbara Kopple and D. A. Pennebaker and Sandra Schulberg from IndieCollect. Also, other panels titled Earning new revenue from old films, Confronting Clearance and Legal Issues, How does your preserved film become preserved and discoverable, Best Practices: Don’t lose your footage in the digital age.
What will become of your legacy? Best Practices for the future.
April 15, 2015 – B & H Film and Photo
A panel discussion dedicated to answering the key questions about estate planning for artists and art collectors. Topics to be addressed: Creating an Inventory – What should be included? Choosing an executor, an attorney, and an accountant. What are your goals? Do you want to bequest the art to family and friends or to an institution? Do you want to avoid taxes? Is a Will sufficient or should you think about setting up a Trust? Can you afford a Life insurance policy that will pay for storage costs after your death? Beyond the art itself, what do you keep? Who will control the copyright? Do you want to allow for reproductions or restrict use? Panelists: Sean Corcoran- Curator of Prints and Photography, Museum of the City of New York, George Bischof, Wills, Trusts and estates attorney, Jennifer Stoots, AAA- Accredited Fine Art Appraiser, Certified in Photography