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This innovative symposium brings together thought leaders to discuss the impact of artist foundations in our changing world. The day-long program will examine practical aspects of running artist-led foundations and estates including the promotion of artist legacies through exhibitions and scholarship, as well as important new approaches to advocacy that embrace ambitious forms of philanthropy, community engagement and activism.
The symposium will conclude with a reception celebrating 150 Stories: Lives of the Artists at the League, a groundbreaking anthology published on the occasion of the Art Students League’s 150th anniversary.
Time: 11:00am-1:00pm
This panel considers practical aspects of establishing and administering artist foundations including assembling catalogues raisonné and archives, overseeing dedicated exhibition and research spaces, developing relationships with museums and galleries, managing assets to ensure sustainability, and promoting artist legacies through interpretation and display.
Speakers:
Daniel Belasco is an art historian and Executive Director of the Al Held Foundation. His research on artists and critics including Louise Bourgeois, Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, and Ti-Grace Atkinson has appeared in numerous journals and exhibition catalogues, and he is currently at work on a book about all-women exhibitions in the United States at midcentury. Belasco previously served as Henry J. Leir Associate Curator at the Jewish Museum, New York, and as Curator of Exhibitions and Programs at the Dorsky Museum, State University of New York at New Paltz.
Ellen Salpeter is the Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Judd Foundation. Salpeter’s previous roles include Director at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (“ICA Miami”); Deputy Director, External Affairs of the Jewish Museum in New York; Director of Heart of Brooklyn; and Director of Thread Waxing Space, a nonprofit arts and education space in New York that presents works of art not ordinarily accessible to the public. She also served as Co-Founder and Vice President of BRAT, a nonprofit public arts organization. Salpeter has consulted for a range of cultural organizations, including the Judd Foundation, The Drawing Center, and Artist’s Space, among others.
Francine Snyder is the Director of Archives and Scholarship at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Prior to the Rauschenberg Foundation, Ms. Snyder spent nearly a decade as Director of the Library and Archives at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and, before that, she was a Project Archivist at Gap, Inc. Her experience gives her a deep understanding of cultural and non-profit archives, digital initiatives, programming, and outreach.
Maggie Wright has been the director of The Easton Foundation, which administers the legacy of Louise Bourgeois, since 2018. She’s worked for the foundation, with special focus on the Louise Bourgeois Archives, since 2009. Prior to this, Wright was the studio manager for the New York print studio Harlan & Weaver, where she worked on a variety of print projects with Bourgeois and other artists. Wright received her BFA in Printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design in 1996, and her MA in art history from Hunter College in 2004. She has also written extensively about artists and printmaking; recent publications include Louise and the League, 1938 –1946 (Art Students League, 2024) and Kiki Smith: Memory (Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, 2022).
Moderator:
Phong Bui is an artist, writer, independent curator, and former curatorial advisor at MoMA PS1 (2007-2010). He is also the Co-Founder, Publisher, and Artistic Director of the monthly journal the Brooklyn Rail and its imprint, Rail Editions. Bui is a Board Trustee of the International Association of Art Critics (2007-2019), Anthology Film Archives (2017-2023), Fountain House, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Second Shift Studio Space St. Paul, Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Studio in a School, the Third Rail, and the Center for Fiction. He is on the Advisory Boards of Art Omi Pavilions, Denniston Hill, Floating Forest, and Sky High Farms, among others, and is the Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of the Monira Foundation at Mana Contemporary. Bui was a senior critic at Yale MFA, Columbia University MFA, and University of Pennsylvania MFA, and has taught graduate seminars in writing, criticism, photography, video, and related media at The School of Visual Arts. He has curated over 90 one-person and group exhibitions and has received numerous awards including the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts in 2021.
Time: 2:00pm-4:00pm
This panel examines the changing role of artist foundations in our contemporary context, including approaches to advocacy that exceed support for exhibitions and research to embrace various modes of philanthropy, community engagement, and activism, exploring how these approaches continue, compliment, and expand the legacies of their artist founders.
Speakers:
Justin D. Brancato is the inaugural Executive Director of the Toshiko Takaezu Foundation and has served as the Deputy Director and Director of Archives at the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation since 2010. Brancato’s career at the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation followed his roles at the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art and the Arman Studio. During his tenure at the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, he spearheaded critical initiatives, including the processing and digitization of a 500-linear-foot archive, collaborating on the publication of a Catalogue Raisonné of the artist’s work, and working with colleagues to establish prominent art collections and projects with institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, Ohio State University, Getty Research Institute, the Centre Pompidou, and the Aspen Institute, among others.
Solana Chehtman is a curator and cultural producer based in New York, originally from Argentina. Her work expands across performing and visual arts, and is driven by values of cultural self-determination, civic agency, and intersectional justice. Before joining the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Chehtman was the inaugural Director of Creative Practice and Social Impact at The Shed. Previously, Chehtman was vice president of public engagement at Friends of the High Line. Since her arrival in New York City in 2012, Chehtman has collaborated with a range of cultural institutions, including Creative Time, the New Museum, the Queens Museum, and the Tribeca Film Institute. She received a BA in international studies at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Buenos Aires, Argentina), completed an MA joint program in public policy from Georgetown University and Universidad de San Martin, and holds an EdM in education policy from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Mikiko Ino was born in Japan and established the fashion buying consulting company, LLJ USA Inc. there in 1990. She later moved to New York City where she continued to work with high-end designers like Jason Wu and Oscar De La Renta and introduced them to Japanese retailers. In 2007, Ino met and later married Kikuo Saito. Following Saito’s death in 2016, she founded KinoSaito in 2018 while continuing to work in fashion merchandising and managing her late husband’s NYC studio/estate.
James Merle Thomas is an interdisciplinary scholar and curator whose work examines the art, visual culture, and technology of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He is currently the inaugural Deputy Director of Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. Thomas previously served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies, an Assistant Professor of Art History at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University, and as a Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Southern California. He holds a doctorate in Art History from Stanford University. Between 2003 and 2013, Thomas worked with the late curator and critic Okwui Enwezor, serving as Assistant Curator and Executive Editor of Publications for, among other projects, the 2nd Seville Biennial (2006) and the 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008); and the 3rd Paris Triennial (2012). In 2018, he collaborated with artist Walead Beshty to publish Picture Industry (Bard CCS/LUMA/JRP | Ringier), an 800-page anthology examining art and photography produced since 1844.
Moderator:
Phong Bui is an artist, writer, independent curator, and former curatorial advisor at MoMA PS1 (2007-2010). He is also the Co-Founder, Publisher, and Artistic Director of the monthly journal the Brooklyn Rail and its imprint, Rail Editions. Bui is a Board Trustee of the International Association of Art Critics (2007-2019), Anthology Film Archives (2017-2023), Fountain House, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Second Shift Studio Space St. Paul, Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Studio in a School, the Third Rail, and the Center for Fiction. He is on the Advisory Boards of Art Omi Pavilions, Denniston Hill, Floating Forest, and Sky High Farms, among others, and is the Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of the Monira Foundation at Mana Contemporary. Bui was a senior critic at Yale MFA, Columbia University MFA, and University of Pennsylvania MFA, and has taught graduate seminars in writing, criticism, photography, video, and related media at The School of Visual Arts. He has curated over 90 one-person and group exhibitions and has received numerous awards including the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts in 2021.
Time: 4:30pm-6:30pm
Following the symposium, raise a glass with us at a reception marking the debut of 150 Stories: Lives of the Artists at the League.
This groundbreaking anthology features 150 artists who have studied or taught at the renowned art school since its founding in 1875, illuminating the broader artistic legacy of those who have passed through its studios. Unlike conventional institutional histories, 150 Stories is an artist-centered collection of essays by nearly 140 contributing scholars, critics, artists, and curators, that focuses on the often-overlooked period of early artistic formation, offering closely observed portraits of artists in development.
Embracing both well-known and non-canonical figures from across the spectrum of visual culture, the book brings to light the formative ideas, generative relationships, and creative inflection points that shape an artist’s path. Through original research and firsthand storytelling, contributors illuminate the personal and pedagogical forces that define artistic growth. In doing so, the anthology captures an informal oral history of teaching at the League—charting how methods, philosophies, and studio practices have been passed from artist to artist across generations.
Celebrate the launch of 150 Stories! Pick up your pre-ordered copy at the reception, or receive one with a gift of $250 or more. When you donate $250 or more you also join Friends of the League, and gain access to exclusive events, special perks, and a deeper connection to our creative community. Learn more at artstudentsleague.org/friends.
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