I is for Institute

In this episode, Mari Spirito, Executive Director, and Curator of Protocinema, a self-described ambulatory and cross-cultural art organization that commissions and presents site-aware art around the world, discusses the complexities of working across geographies and ruminates on the importance of relationship building in the creation of alternative art ecosystems. 

Co-hosted by Alex Klein, Dorothy and Stephen R. Weber (CHE ’60) Senior Curator and Pelle Tracey, ICA Curatorial Intern and doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan.

To commemorate the 50th anniversaries of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) and The Kitchen, Rebecca Cleman, EAI’s Director, and Alison Burstein, Curator at The Kitchen, reflect on their shared organizational histories in this live recorded event (at The Kitchen in May 2022) to celebrate the launch of the publication Broadcasting: EAI at ICA. They discuss an alternative arts ecology and how it informs their institutional roles in the present. Moderated by Alex Klein, Dorothy and Stephen R. Weber (CHE’60) Curator at ICA. 

In this episode, Alex Klein, ICA's Dorothy and Steven R. Weber CHE '60 curator, is joined by James E. Britt Jr., former DAJ Director of Public Engagement at ICA, in conversation with Ken Lum and Paul M. Farber, about their work with and experiences co-founding Monument Lab–an organization based in Philadelphia that seeks to shine light on and destabilize the systems of power embedded within our monument landscape. They share their insights on how organizations can reframe the way they work within and alongside communities and their perspectives on how histories are held by people and not statues.

I is for Institute is a collaborative project that focuses on the many individuals who are working to reimagine models for arts institutions. Above all, the “I” in I is for Institute acknowledges that institutions are composed of people and rooted in places. Launched in 2016, the project began with an investigation into ICA’s own history and structure and with a desire to rethink what an “institute” could be in the future. The project includes a podcast, a website that catalogs over 50 dialogues with colleagues working internationally, and a series of institutional partnerships.

In this episode our guests Lulani Arquette, President and CEO of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF), and Flint Jamison, a co-founder and Board Chair of Yale Union (a non-profit contemporary art center), both in Portland, Oregon, recount Yale Union’s decision to dissolve as an organization and to transfer the building and land over to the NACF. Arquette and Jamison reflect on the complexities and new possibilities created by this radical action with host Alex Klein, Dorothy and Stephen R. Weber (CHE '60) Curator, and co-interviewer Tausif Noor, ICA Spiegel-Wilks Curatorial Fellow (2017— 2020).

I is for Institute is a collaborative project that focuses on the many individuals who are working to reimagine models for arts institutions. Above all, the “I” in I is for Institute acknowledges that institutions are composed of people and rooted in places. Launched in 2016, the project began with an investigation into ICA’s own history and structure and with a desire to rethink what an “institute” could be in the future. The project includes a podcast, a website that catalogs over 50 dialogues with colleagues working internationally, and a series of institutional partnerships. Currently on view is RAW Académie at ICA: Infrastructure, an exhibition and experimental study program taking place at ICA through May 2022 under the artistic direction of Linda Goode Bryant in collaboration with RAW Material Company. 

What’s in a name? One of the core questions at the center of I is for Institute is explored this week in the second episode out today. Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Director of the Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam and host, Alex Klein, ICA’s Dorothy and Stephen R. Weber (CHE '60) provide background and transparency around the internal decision process and external pressures that led to the renaming of the organization formerly known as the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art to Kunstinstituut Melly, and discuss the importance of language for inclusivity.

Discussing the multi-layered process at play, Chong Cuy explains “What was very clear to me was that the first people who had to be convinced to transform and to change from within, and not just the name, was our staff. And I think that if that team did not have the conviction to change the name, then we were not going to be able to change the institution.”

She adds “It really meant that to transform beyond the symbolic nature of the name change, you had to first have the backing and have the will and the determination from the team. And so that meant creating a self-awareness, understanding and recognizing other talents and values that were being unspoken about or unidentified at the institution. And really creating a work culture where participation is much more, you know, palpable, and real. Meaning you feel more involved much more committed, whether it's because you're sharing the responsibility of a budget or of a name change.”

To learn more about the Kunstinstituut Melly visit https://www.kunstinstituutmelly.nl/en/.

Welcome to the I is for Institute podcast. My name is Alex Klein, the Dorothy and Stephen R. Weber (CHE'60) Curator at ICA, the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. In this series, you will hear from our colleagues working in contemporary arts organizations around the world about their individual perspectives on the work they are doing to shape and imagine different institutional models. At this critical moment when museums and their infrastructures are being re-evaluated, these dialogues highlight pressing concerns for artists, art workers, arts institutions, and their publics. We invite you to follow these ongoing conversations and to access the archive at our website iisforinstitute.icaphila.org.