Dear Colleagues and friends,

 

I’ve sent Joan a personal email, but I wanted to take some time to thank her publicly for her kind words of support and glowing review.

 

The subtitle of the conference could have been called “intersections or overlaps” – the work done by single individual museums, foundations, presidential centers, historic homes and other similar institutions have commonalities that we wanted to bring to the surface.  I am grateful to the speakers – which included curators, archivists, art historians, an artist, and critics and writers - for their thoughtful presentations. In addition, attendees of a Wednesday morning pre-forum tour of Georgia O’Keeffe’s historic houses at Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch were able to enjoy lunch at the Abiquiu Inn and take part in a facilitated dialogue over lunch with discussion leaders in small groups at each lunch table.    

 

Joan, thank you for attending the conference and for your thoughtful review as well.  You are correct that the conference was video recorded and will be archived in the Research Center. 

 

Best to all,

Eumie

 

 

 

 

Dear Colleagues:

 

I am lucky—lucky to now be living in Santa Fe, which (besides being one of the most beautiful small cities in the world), is a microcosm of global art and culture—in fact, my one complaint has always been that there is WAY too much to do here—no matter what your interest.

 

This past week I felt luckier than usual as my friend Eumie Imm-Stroukoff, who is Director of the Research Center at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum here in Santa Fe (and currently ARLIS/NA's Vice-President), just produced a marvelous 2-day conference at the O'Keeffe Research Center that I was able to attend.  I'm sure that the ARLIS/NA board knows what she's been up to for the past year or so, but I think other ARLIS members should know as well.  (I'm sure I am embarrassing Eumie—she never toots her own horn—sorry Eumie.) 

 

It's worth mentioning that although Georgia O'Keeffe and the O'Keeffe Museum were definitely topics as well as points of departure, the conference reflected the Museum's and the Research Center's broader mission to  present new concepts and research not only on O’Keeffe, but on American Modernism and Museum Studies as well.  Not only was the content (the speakers and their theme—"More Than an Icon: Balancing Authenticity, Idealism, and Expectations at Single-Focus Institutions") terrific, the schedule was ideal as well, with breaks in the morning and afternoon and 2-hour lunch periods each day.  This gave all of us—audience and speakers--a real chance to get to know each other—unusual for a short conference.  The focus was actually on museum and historic house interpretations of individuals—not only artists but "icons" such as American presidents—based on their archives—and the concept of archives was very broadly defined. 

 

The Santa Fe weather, which had been showery a few days before, cooperated and breaks were all outside on the lovely Research Center patio, under enormous trees with O'Keeffe sculptures nearby.  The sessions themselves were actually in the beautiful library: tables had been removed, audience chairs brought in, a small riser, podium, and speakers' chairs added at the front of the room.

 

Noteworthy was the format—alternating solo speakers the first day with very interesting 2-person speaker pairings and a series of these duos on the second day, made for sessions more intimate than the usual panels of three or four speakers.  I'll mention just two highlights: the artist Harmony Hammond paired with Lucy Lippard, the critic; and Cody Hartley, Director of Curatorial Affairs, O'Keeffe Museum in conversation with Eric Shiner, former Director, Andy Warhol Museum (now with Sotheby's).  The keynote speaker, the brilliant Elaine Heumann Gurian, set the stage the night before Day 1 and wrapped up the proceedings at the end of Day 2.  In some cases the paired speakers spoke individually first and then sat in chairs to converse on the stage; in other cases the entire presentation was an informal (though prepared) seated conversation. Some duos knew each other (Harmony Hammond and Lucy Lippard live in the same small New Mexico town); others had previously spoken only on the phone.  All together there were 15 speakers in 8 sessions over two days.  Eumie introduced each speaker.

 

The entire conference was videotaped and I hope the tapes (or a transcript) will be available outside of the Museum at some point. The audio system, by the way, was wonderful, with portable mikes being used by speakers and audience members in Q and A, which meant everyone could hear everything—a basic, but sometimes neglected conference utility. Congratulations—and thank you, Eumie!

 

Joan

 

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