Keynote: Crafting Your Legacy

Whether you are just begin­ning your career, or think­ing about what retire­ment might look like, the concept of legacy is always impor­tant. Toshiko Takaezu shaped her posthu­mous exhi­bi­tion legacy by donat­ing groups of her ceram­ics to insti­tu­tions that supported her during her life­time. Wharton Esher­ick’s home and studio has become a beloved museum which devel­ops exhi­bi­tions and preserves his legacy. Most of us will not be as famous as these two pioneers of the Amer­i­can Craft move­ment, but many of our members do have histo­ries of selling furni­ture with galleries, exhibit­ing work in museums, and being bought and sold by collec­tors at auction. Does gallery repre­sen­ta­tion matter? How does one develop rela­tion­ships with cura­tors and have their work acquired by museums? Should you freak out the first time your work appears at auction? 

James Zemaitis, Direc­tor of Museum Rela­tions at R & Company in New York, will lead a free­wheel­ing, completely candid discus­sion on navi­gat­ing the art market and museum land­scape. Over the course of his 25-year career as an auction special­ist, curator, and gallerist, James has made numer­ous mistakes and given terri­ble advice. But in his current posi­tion as the unof­fi­cial social direc­tor of the Amer­i­can commu­nity of museum cura­tors who special­ize in design and craft, James has learned much about foster­ing rela­tion­ships between artists and insti­tu­tions. He will be joined by Garth Johnson, the Paul Phillips and Sharon Sulli­van Curator of Ceram­ics at the Everson Museum of Art who describes himself as a craft activist explor­ing craft’s influ­ence and rele­vance in the 21st century.

R and Company

Everson Museum