Throughout the process of organizing our Artist Interview Workshops, we are increasingly encouraged and amazed by the artist interview projects being undertaken already. These projects are succeeding in their goals to gain a better understanding of materials, techniques and intent of the artist. Over the coming months, we will be highlighting some of our colleague’s projects – both longstanding interview projects as well as new projects.
Today, we want to focus on the exceptional work done by the Artist Documentation Program (ADP). This program was established in 1990 by Carol Mancusi-Ungaro during her time at The Menil Collection and is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It has since grown to be a partnership between the Menil Collection, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art at Harvard Art Museums. The ADP has conducted, captured and shared artist interviews as a core approach to preserving contemporary art. Aiming to address the unique challenges presented by contemporary works that are often materially ephemeral, time-based, interactive, or conceptual, the ADP conducts interviews with artists and collates them in an online archive. If you haven’t done so already, we highly suggest you delve into the ADP website and check out some of these interviews for yourself. They are the gold standard for conservation-minded artist interviews. Enjoy!