This day-long series of panels will focus on the intersections of feminist and institutional practices, asking how institutions have integrated feminist perspectives into their long-term curatorial, collections, and programming objectives. Sessions will examine how the museum, as a quasi-public space, negotiates representations of sexuality and gender; how institutions can be "queered" to become more inclusive and less normative; and how feminism might impact institutions in the long term through collection plans and mission statements. There will be a special focus on the institutional archive as a platform especially conducive to a feminist voice. This program is hosted by the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art and the Institute for Women and Art at Rutgers University. It is free with Museum admission.



10–10:10 a.m.

Welcome and Introductory Remarks

Organizer: Catherine Morris



10:15–11:45 a.m.

Queering the Museum

Chair: Tirza True Latimer, California College of the Arts

Panelists: Kim Anno, California College of the Arts; Apsara DiQuinzio, University of California Berkeley Art Museum; Thomas Lax, Studio Museum in Harlem; Jeannine Tang, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College



This panel addresses canon construction, ideologies of display, institutional activism, and what "normal" looks like today, exploring strategies arising from a commitment to disenfranchised sexual communities, and to social justice more broadly.



11:50 a.m.–12:35 p.m.

Mapping the Modern: Women, Art, and Politics

Andrea Geyer, artist, and Sabine Breitwieser, Appointed Director, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg



Breitwieser and Geyer discuss Geyer’s research into three women who laid the foundation of the Museum of Modern Art: Lilly Bliss, Mary Sullivan, and Abby Rockefeller.



12:35–1:15 p.m.

Lunch Break



1:15–2:45 p.m.

The Artist as Archivist

Chair: Aruna D’Souza, independent scholar

Panelists: Harmony Hammond, artist, writer, and independent curator; Catherine Lord, University of California, Irvine; Ulrike Müller, artist; Martha Wilson, artist and Founding Director, Franklin Furnace



This panel addresses archives of artistic work, including those created by artists, and archives as art.



2:50–4:05 p.m.

Working With and Through Collections: Curators in Conversation

Chair: Saisha Grayson, Assistant Curator, The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum

Panelists: Cathleen Chaffee, Yale University Art Galleries; Norman Kleeblatt, Jewish Museum; Jenelle Porter, Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston



This discussion addresses how institutions integrate, or resist integrating, feminism into their collection strategies, either overtly, through mission statements and collection plans, or less overtly, through daily management, presentation, and interpretation.



4:10–5:40 p.m.

Sex in the Museums

Chair: Anne Swartz, Savannah College of Art and Design

Panelists: Elissa Auther, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs; Claudia Hart, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Jeffreen Hayes, Birmingham Museum of Art; Jennifer Tyburczy, El Colegio de México, Mexico City



This panel explores what it means to create and display work considered transgressive. How are sex (the embodied, ephemeral activity) and sexuality (sexual orientation, desire, love, intimacy, and a relationship to objects in space and time, such as those in museum exhibitions) distinct from one another?