Webinar: Civic Pride: The City as Collector by TEFAF

WEBINAR ENDED

About This Webinar

This event will go live at 1 PM EDT / 7PM CET (19:00)

All museums may be local now – or at least, with travel restricted, the physical premises and collections of museums are largely only accessible to local audiences. But many museums, for all their international presence and reputation, started out as civic collections, reflecting the tastes and priorities of cities and their inhabitants. In this time of crisis, could those museums be more meaningful to urban populations than ever?

This discussion will explore what it means for a city to collect, or for a museum to collect objects relating to the history and artistic production of cities. How did such collections emerge and who were they for? What does it mean to put on display the cultural and/or social histories of a city? And what role might such museums play in reflecting the contemporary city, especially at a time in which cities themselves are under such strain?

Presenters

Fatema Ahmed

Moderator of TEFAF Talks and Deputy Editor, Apollo magazine

Fatema Ahmed is the deputy editor of Apollo magazine. Previously the senior editor at Icon and the managing editor at Granta she has written for publications including Prospect, the London Review of Books, New Humanist and the New York Times.

Christophe Léribault

Director of the Petit Palais – Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris

Christophe Leribault has been director of the Petit Palais – Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris since 2012. He was curator of paintings and then also of drawings at the Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris from 1990 to 2006. Before joining the Petit Palais, he was deputy director of the Départment des Arts Graphiques at the Louvre – a post he held at the same time as being director of the Musée Delacroix. He has been the curator or co-curator of more than 30 exhibitions including, at the Louvre, ‘L’Antiquité rêvée’ (2010–11) and ‘Delacroix et la Photographie’ at the Musée Delacroix’ (2008). More recently, at the Petit Palais he has curated ‘Paris 1900, la ville spectacle’ (2014) and ‘Le Baroque des Lumières’ (2017) and ‘Paris Romantique’ (2019).

Louise Mirrer

President and CEO, New-York Historical Society

Louise Mirrer joined the New-York Historical Society as president and CEO in June 2004. Under her guidance, New-York Historical is reinvigorating its commitment to foster greater public understanding of history and its impact on the world of today, to support and encourage historical scholarship, and to develop education initiatives for young people, students, and adults. Mirrer led New-York Historical’s campaign for a major renovation of its landmark building on Central Park West, which raised more than $100 million, and is the driving force behind the $35 million renovation of the fourth floor and establishment of the new Center for Women’s History.

Benno Tempel

Director, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Netherlands

Benno Tempel has been the director of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag, which also includes the Fotomuseum Den Haag, GEM and Escher in The Palais, since 2009. A specialist in late 19th century and early 20th century painting, exhibitions he has curated at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag include ‘Cezanne, Picasso, Mondrian: A New Perspective’, ‘The Anatomy Lesson: from Rembrandt to Damien Hirst’ and ‘Claude Monet: The Garden Paintings’. Tempel was the curator of the Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2019. He was previously curator of exhibitions at the Van Gogh Museum from 2006–2008 where he was responsible for exhibitions including ‘Barcelona 1900’ and ‘Max Beckmann in Amsterdam 1937–1947’. Before that he was curator of exhibitions at the Kunsthal Rotterdam from 2000–2006, where exhibitions he organised included ‘Masters of Romanticism, Dutch Painting 1800–1850’ and ‘Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939): Master of Jugendstil’.

Thomas

Editor, Apollo magazine

Thomas Marks has been the Editor of Apollo magazine since 2013, having previously worked as the magazine’s Deputy Editor. He was responsible for relaunching Apollo’s website as a daily forum for art news and opinion in 2013, and last year launched the Apollo 40 Under 40. He has contributed to a wide range of publications as a writer and critic, and is a co-founder of the online quarterly, 'The Junket'.