This program is online only (via Zoom, YouTube, and Facebook Live). Advance registration is required for Zoom participation, including the chance to ask questions (time permitting). After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the program. The recent rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has sent ripples through the art world, raising questions for artists, museums, and the art market. Do NFTs empower artists by giving them more control of their work, or does this latest “disruption” simply reproduce existing market dynamics? What are the implications of NFTs for museums, and do they go beyond the systems we currently have in place for certifying authenticity? The Hirshhorn Museum has assembled a dynamic panel of experts from different corners of the art world to help us understand the current NFT craze, and debate the future of blockchain technology’s impact on artists and cultural institutions. Panelists (in alphabetical order) Anne Bracegirdle is an Associate Vice President and Specialist in Christie’s Photographs Department. Separately, she co-organized Christie’s inaugural Art+Tech Summit in July 2017 ‘Exploring Blockchain’, and is spearheading Christie’s Art+Tech initiative. Anne speaks widely on the topic of art and blockchain and has been cited in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Forbes, The Art Newspaper, among others. Anne has ten years of experience at Christie’s and received her Master’s degree at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art on the History of Photography. Claudia Hart has been active as an artist, curator, and critic since 1988. She works with digital trompe l’oeil as a medium, directing theater and making media objects of all kinds. Hart’s works are widely exhibited and collected by galleries and museums including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum, the New Museum, Eyebeam Center for Art + Technology, where she was an honorary fellow in 2013-14. Hart lives in Chicago where she is a tenured professor at the School of the Art Institute, in the department of Film Video, New Media and Animation. Full bio Kenny Schachter has been curating contemporary art exhibits in museums and galleries and teaching art history and economics for nearly 30 years. He has lectured internationally, been the recipient of a Rockefeller-supported grant in Mexico and contributed to books on Paul Thek, Zaha Hadid, Vito Acconci and Sigmar Polke/Gerhard Richter. In addition to writing widely for various international publications, Schachter has a regular column on Artnet.com where he has recently written about NFTs and the “new virtual art market.” Jerry Saltz is the senior art critic at New York Magazine and its entertainment site Vulture.com, a leading voice in the art world at large, and an innovative user of social media. He joined the magazine’s staff in 2007, and his writing ranges from cover stories to reviews to quick online commentaries. He won a National Magazine Award for Columns & Commentary in 2015, and was a finalist for the same award in 2011. Full bio Moderator Marina Isgro joined the Hirshhorn as Associate Curator in March 2020 and is responsible for the Museum’s collection of media and performance art. She is the curator of the forthcoming exhibition John Akomfrah: Purple and has brought works by Sondra Perry and Jacolby Satterwhite into the collection. Isgro was previously a curatorial fellow at the Harvard Art Museums, where she curated Nam June Paik: Screen Play.
SCHEDULE
6:20 pm EDT | Zoom broadcast opens
6:30 pm EDT | Program begins CART (real-time captioning) will be provided across all platforms. If you have any questions about accessibility for this program, please email hirshhornexperience@si.edu. This event is part of #HirshhornInsideOut, the Museum’s initiative to bring art into your home. |