While cultural objects and their makers tend to garner the bulk of media attention, how artworks and artifacts are preserved, presented and described has a significant impact on how culture is understood and received by audiences. Moreover, during the past two decades, the art world has undergone an expansionary phase with respect to the construction of new museum venues – for instance, the Guggenheim in Bilbao or the Louvre in Abu Dhabi – and the discovery of new artistic settings – for instance, the Chinese, Indian or Iranian art scenes – which has been largely instigated by curators and art world insiders eager to discover new artists and create new experiences. This panel will ask: what is the role of cultural institutions in respect to the presentation and communication of artworks? Further, what role does curatorial practice play in discovering new art forms and bringing new voices to the public? Lastly, what role do market forces play in how we view and understand art?
Bio
Colonel Matthew Bogdanos
Colonel Matthew Bogdanos is a native New Yorker, raised waiting tables in his family's Greek restaurant in Lower Manhattan. A middleweight boxer who joined the U.S. Marine Corps at 19, he left active duty in 1988 for the New York County District Attorney's Office. Remaining in the reserves, he led a counter-narcotics operation on the Mexican border and served in Desert Storm, South Korea, Lithuania, Guyana, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kosovo.
Losing his apartment near the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, he joined a counter-terrorism task force in Afghanistan, receiving a Bronze Star for actions against al-Qaeda. He then served in the Horn of Africa and three tours in Iraq—leading the international investigation into the looting of Iraq’s National Museum—before deploying again to Afghanistan in 2009. Exposing the link between antiquities trafficking and terrorist financing, and presenting those findings to the United Nations, Interpol, British Parliament, and the Peace Palace in The Hague, he received a National Humanities Medal from President Bush for helping recover 6000 of Iraq's treasures in eight countries.
He holds a classics degree from Bucknell University; a law degree, master’s degree in Classics, and Recognition of Achievement in International Law from Columbia University; and a master’s degree in Strategic Studies from the Army War College. In addition to dozens of military decorations, he received the 2004 Public Service Award from the Hellenic Lawyers of America, 2007 Proclamation from the City of New York, 2009 Proclamation from the City of Philadelphia, 2011 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and was Grand Marshal of the 2010 Greek Independence Day Parade.
Returning to the DA’s Office in October 2010, he still boxes and continues the hunt for stolen antiquities, recently leading an investigation that recovered 100 ancient statues stolen from India. All royalties from his book, Thieves of Baghdad, are donated to the Iraq Museum.
Dr. Melissa Chiu
Dr. Melissa Chiu is Museum Director and Senior Vice President, Global Arts and Cultural Programs, Asia Society in New York responsible for overseeing the programming for museums in New York, Houston and Hong Kong. She was previously Founding Director of the Asia-Australia Arts Centre in Sydney (1996-2001).
As a leading authority on Asian contemporary art, she has organized nearly 30 exhibitions of artists from across Asia including a retrospective by Zhang Huan, a survey of Yoshitomo Nara, and an exhibition of art from China’s Cultural Revolution.
She earned a M.A. in Arts Administration (1994) and a PhD (2005) in Art History and is the author of numerous articles and books including Breakout: Chinese Art Outside China (2007), Chinese Contemporary Art: 7 Things You Should Know (2008), Asian Art Now (Monacelli Press, 2010, co-authored with Benjamin Genocchio) and an anthology Contemporary Art in Asia: A Critical Reader (MIT Press, 2011, co-edited with Benjamin Genocchio). She has served on numerous panels including Pew, Institute of Museum and Library Services and New York State Council on the Arts and currently serves on the board American Association of Museums, and Museums Association of New York.
Kathleen Doyle
As Chairman/CEO of Doyle New York, Mrs. Kathleen M. Doyle leads the growth strategy for one of the world’s foremost auctioneers and appraisers of fine art, jewelry, furniture and specialty categories. Her in-depth knowledge of the art and auction market, combined with her commitment to providing buyers and consignors with personalized service, enables the gallery to continuously expand the client base and increase the range of offerings at auction. Doyle New York works closely with Trust and Estate lawyers and bankers to provide appraisal and auction services for their clients. Doyle hosts approximately 40 auctions per year.
Recognizing the opportunity in the global art market in the 1990’s, Mrs. Doyle negotiated international strategic alliances in Europe and China. To accommodate consignors and collectors outside of New York City, she established a network of regional representatives along the Atlantic seaboard, with offices in Connecticut, Boston, Washington, DC and Charlotte, North Carolina. Mrs. Doyle spearheaded the development of online client services with a state of the art Internet site, adding Internet bidding capabilities and real time on-line auctions.
Mrs. Doyle initiated an extensive education program for collectors including lectures and seminars featuring specialists in art, design, fashion, jewelry, etc. These programs are conducted at the galleries and offered free to the public. Doyle New York was the first auction gallery to provide appraisers to the Antiques Roadshow and has supported WGBH as an underwriter of the program for the past seventeen years. Mrs. Doyle frequently donates Doyle New York appraisal and auction services for museums and not-for-profit organizations, schools, universities, hospitals, medical schools and community-based programs for fund raising events.
She first joined her husband, William J. Doyle in the gallery in 1968 and later left to pursue graduate studies. She rejoined Doyle New York in 1992, and, after her husband’s death, she assumed responsibilities as Chairman and CEO. Prior to her return to the art and auction business, Mrs. Doyle served as Parent Education Specialist at the New York Medical College’s Early Childhood Development Center, and, following that, she founded the Parent Education Program in the Department of Pediatrics at St. Vincent’s Hospital. For eight years as a child development specialist, she directed the early intervention program to provide an interdisciplinary team approach to pre and post-natal parent education, family support and referral services.
Mrs. Doyle was born in Bryn Mawr, PA. She is a graduate of Trinity College in Washington, D.C. and has an MS in Parent and Infant Development from Bank Street College in New York, NY. For many years, she served on the boards of St. Vincent’s Hospital, New York, Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton, NY, the Edwin L.and Francis Cummings Foundation and the Board of Directors of 1115 Fifth Avenue. She continues to serve on the Board of Trustees of the Hannah and Ryan Barry Foundation and the 564 Park Avenue Foundation, a preservation foundation. She is a member of Art Table and the Decorators Club. Mrs. Doyle is the mother of three daughters. She is married to Richard Ravitch, former Lieutenant Governor of New York State who has two sons. They live in New York City and Wainscott, New York. They have twelve grandchildren.
Matthew Drutt
Mr. Matthew Drutt has over thirty years of leadership experience in academia, non-profit, and for profit arts institutions. He is currently the Executive Director for the Blouin Cultural Advisory Group, an international company that helps individuals and institutions build collections of fine art.
As Executive Director of Lisson Gallery in London, Milan, and New York, he oversaw its international sales of such stellar artists as Daniel Buren, Tony Cragg, Dan Graham, Anish Kapoor, Jason Martin, and Lawrence Weiner. From 2006-2011, he was Executive Director of Artpace San Antonio, an international artist residency program. During that time he also served as chair of the Contemporary Museum Subcommittee of the Association of Art Museum Directors (2010-11). As Chief Curator of The Menil Collection, Houston (2001 – 2006), he organized acclaimed exhibitions of Olafur Eliasson, Robert Gober, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Kazimir Malevich, and Roberto Matta. From 1993 – 2001, he was a curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, where he organized numerous shows, including Amazons of the Avant-Garde, and advised on the construction and programming of the international Guggenheim network.
He has also served as a visiting professor at Columbia University, and was a teaching fellow at Yale University prior to that. In 2006, the French Government honored him as a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters in recognition of his distinguished accomplishments.
Jane Rosenthal
Ms. Jane Rosenthal has distinguished herself as a leading producer with a roster of both critically acclaimed and commercially successful films as well as co-founding Tribeca Productions in 1988 and Tribeca Film Festival in 2001 with partners Craig Hatkoff and Robert De Niro. Since its inception, the Festival has attracted more than 3.7 million visitors and generated over $750 million dollars in economic activity for lower Manhattan. Ms. Rosenthal also co-founded the Tribeca Film Institute, an instrumental resource for filmmakers and arts education, with programs that reach over 16,000 New York City students.
Ms. Rosenthal is CEO of Tribeca Enterprises, a diversified media company she formed with De Niro and Hatkoff in 2003 to provide artists with unique platforms to expand their audience and to broaden consumers’ access to independent film and media. The branded businesses of Tribeca Enterprises include the Festival, Tribeca Film Festival International, Tribeca Cinemas, Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy, and Tribeca Film, a distribution label. In 2009, Rosenthal and her partners formed a strategic partnership with Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and created the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Doha, Qatar.
Prior to founding Tribeca Productions, she was an executive at CBS-TV and The Walt Disney Company. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and is an active leader on the boards of the Tribeca Film Institute, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at The World Trade Center, the Child Mind Institute, the American Museum of the Moving Image, and the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Dean’s Council.
David Ross
David Ross has 35 years experience as an art museum curator and director. Now working as chair of the newly formed interdisciplinary MFA program in Art Practice at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, he is also teaching at the CUNY Graduate Journalism School and (with Carrie Mae Weems) collaborating on a new program for the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University.
Yuan Xikun
Yuan Xikun is a well-known Chinese artist, collector, educator and environmentalist. He is the member of the Standing Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Currently he holds the following positions: Founder of Beijing JinTai Art Museum, Honorary Chairman of China Association of Collectors, Researcher of the Graduate School of the Chinese Arts Research Institute and Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts, United Nations Environment Program’s ‘Patron for Art & Environment’. He was listed as the Top 5 Chinese Contemporary artist in 2010.
As an artist and cultural diplomat, Yuan was invited to draw ink-and-wash portraits for 152 foreign dignitaries, which were acknowledged and signed by these leaders. His sculptures of international celebrities have been collected and inaugurated by foreign governments and museums in many countries. Up to now, Yuan is the artist who earned the international recognition and has won the most international highest medals in the field of sculpture, such as the highest honorable medals from foreign presidents.
As an educator and environmentalist, Yuan launched “Champion of the Water Alliance” on the Earth Day of 2011 as a global call for public participation to save water. His environmental-themed sculpture 'Urgency in the Polar Region' was selected as the “Champion of the Earth” award trophies and collected by the UNEP headquarters and Arctic Council.
Melissa Chiu, museum director for the Asia Society, speaks of the moral dilemma modern museums face in the past acquirement of art during war and ancient times and ownership of cultural property.
