The Center for the Preservation of Artists’ Legacies (CPAL) aims to address challenges facing the legacies of contemporary visual artists and their life’s work. While artists of significant means can create endowed foundations, those who are underrecognized or less financially privileged, yet who have made important contributions to the visual historical-cultural continuum, are left without a tangible method to address their artistic legacy in a meaningful way.
Most often, the archiving and stewarding of artists’ legacies are left to family members ill-equipped to manage these delicate tasks. Gallery representatives don’t always handle these matters, and museum bequests typically come with financial and long-term maintenance agreements. Dumpsters are the prevailing alternative. Without the guidance of adequate cataloging and economic planning, most artworks left posthumously by underrecognized artists are dropped from the record, leaving a biased history to represent the field.
CPAL seeks to identify and implement strategies to promote equity in the stewardship of multiple individual artistic legacies with innovative cross-disciplinary solutions.
On June 2–4, 2025, join CPAL for their third annual conference on preserving artists’ legacies, taking place in person at the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation in Manhattan’s Lower East Side as well as virtually over Zoom.
Tickets are available now.
2025 CPAL Annual Conference
Day 1: Represent
Explores how major private or institutional collections are constructed, and how caretakers manage the legacies of artists who have passed. How do collections reflect current views on the artistic canon, and who comes to be represented? How do artworks enter collections and established archives?
Day 2: Preserve
Provides a basis for the specific methodologies behind the protection of estates: preservation of artwork and archives ensures that an artist’s legacy persists. Featured topics include legal, financial, accounting, and insurance issues, plus appraisal and best practices in gifting/donation.
Day 3: Sustain
Defines the importance of creating and maintaining practice through collective efforts. Platforms individual approaches to legacy by prominent artists as well as the gallerist’s role in sustaining these efforts.
Participants
- Joy Glidden, Executive Director and Founder, Center for the Preservation of Artists’ Legacies (CPAL)
- Susan Reynolds, Executive Director, the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation
- Francis Greenburger, Founder and Co-Executive Director, Art Omi Pavilions
- Beth Rudin DeWoody, Collector, Curator, and Founder of the Bunker Artspace, West Palm Beach
- Sue Stoffel, Private and Corporate Collection Management & Services
- Terrie Sultan, Independent Curator, Cultural Consultant, and Founding Principal Museum Strategist for Art Museum Strategies @ Hudson Ferris
- Corinne Erni, Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator of Art and Education, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs, Parrish Art Museum
- Shira Backer, Leon Levy Associate Curator at the Jewish Museum
- Susanna V. Temkin, Interim Chief Curator, El Museo del Barrio
- Nicholas Martin, Curator for the Arts & Humanities at NYU Special Collections
- Cameron Sterling, Content Consultant for Visual Artists (Archivist – Ellen Graham, Richard Avedon, Hiro)
- Lisa Darms, Executive Director, Hauser & Wirth Institute
- Caryn Keppler, Esq., Principal, Offit Kurman
- Sarah Kirk Hanley, AAA Certified Appraiser
- Ann-Marie Richard, Director, Sotheby’s Institute of Art
- Michael Borger, Esq., S Foundation
- Amelia Brankov, Brankov PLLC NYC Arts and Media Law Firm
- Robert Wainstein, Co-Founder & CEO, Museum Exchange
- Sozita Goudouna, PhD, Curator, Director of Raymond Pettibon Studio
- Sur Rodney Sur Writer, Curator, Archivist, Co-Executor of the Geoffrey Hendricks Estate
- Valentina Di Liscia, News Editor, Hyperallergic
- Lesley Dill, Multimedia Artist
- Rico Gatson, Artist
- Jack Waters, ABC No Rio
- Charles Yuen, Co-Founder, Godzilla
- Dorsey Waxter, Van Doren Waxter
- Bridget Moore, DC Moore Gallery
- Ted Berger, CPAL Board Member, Arts Activist, Co-Creator of Cultural Council Foundation’s Artists Project, Executive Director Emeritus, NYFA, Director of NYCreates
- Monika Fabijanska, Independent Art Historian, Curator, Appraiser
- Carol Steinberg, Esq., Attorney and Professor, School of Visual Arts
- Saul Ostrow, Consultant to the Bobby Anspach Studios Foundation
- Robin Cembalest, Robin Cembalest Editorial Strategies
- Amelia Brankov, Brankov PLLC NYC Arts and Media Law Firm
- Isaac Alpert, Director of Estates, PPOW
For more information, visit cpal-info.com.