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Artist Legacy Initiatives

Legacy stewardship is core to the Foundation's mission, grounded in three decades of direct support to artists and an ongoing commitment to advocating for this work across the field.

Marcos Dimas, a Puerto Rican man with medium tone skin, short gray hair and glasses, takes notes on a legal pad in front of a large artwork on paper.
CALL Artist Marcos Dimas in his studio, 2016. Photo by Megan Pasko.

Overview

As stewards of Joan Mitchell’s legacy, we have the privilege of witnessing first-hand the potential impact of an artistic legacy on future generations and recognize the need for more sustainable and collaborative legacy support across our field. From gatherings and mapping to guides and tutorials, the Foundation’s initiatives seek to galvanize the field towards a more robust legacy ecosystem and to share information with those seeking tools and guidance in their own legacy journeys.

A book cover reading "Joan Mitchell Foundation, Creating Future Memory: Building the Field of Artist Legacy Stewardship" overlaying a collage by Troy Montes Michie, in which yellowed pages and faded photographs are laid out in an irregular but careful grid of strict verticals and horizontals.

Building The Field of Artist Legacy Stewardship

In 2026, we published Creating Future Memory: Building the Field of Artist Legacy Stewardship, a report that builds on the Foundation's 2025 Creating Future Memory Convening. It offers a picture of a broad, coalescing legacy stewardship ecosystem—the people, practices, and organizations that shape it—alongside its central challenges and most promising opportunities, from emergent models already underway, to possibilities not yet explored.

Drawing on the voices and experiences of over 150 artists, family members, archivists, curators, and legacy professionals, the publication calls for broader awareness of legacy work's importance across the field, and advocates for greater support for it and collaboration across every sector of the art world.

Access the Report

“ There is no individual in any of this. Every legacy is communal.”

—Josh T Franco, Historian and artist

A map of the continental USA with 100+ map markers dotted around the country

Legacy Field Map

Launched in September 2026, the Legacy Field Map is a crowd-sourced directory for visual artists and their supporters eager to learn more about legacy stewardship resources, nonprofit organizations, collectives, and initiatives across the United States. The listings and filter options encompass a variety of legacy support practices As the Legacy Field Map grows organically over time through community contributions, the goal is to provide visibility for legacy organizations, as well as facilitate connection and information exchange between organizations across the country.

Explore the Legacy Field Map

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Legacy Planning Guides, Workbooks & Tutorials

After many years working directly with mature artists through the Creating a Living Legacy (CALL) initiative, the Foundation began making its resources widely available through free workbooks, guides, online tutorials, and case studies.

These tools are designed to help artists and their supporters move through the legacy planning process at their own pace. Workbooks offer clear steps for documenting and inventorying artists’ work, archive, and career, as well as starting the estate planning process. Online tutorials offer quick, practical tips and tools, and case studies share real-world experience from artists who have gone through this process themselves.

Browse Legacy Planning Tools

Otto Neals smiles on a couch surrounded by artwork. He is Black with a greying beard, and wears a leather cap and a necklace with a cowrie shell pendant.
CALL Artist Otto Neals

Legacy Voices

Gathering the voices and experiences of artists remains a significant aspect of securing the future of their legacy as these individuals and their histories recede further from the present.

From 2013 to 2021, the Foundation partnered with VoCA (Voices in Contemporary Art) to produce the CALL/VoCA Talks, a series of oral histories with artists who participated in the CALL program. The full-length videos are available below, and accessibly preserved with full transcripts at the NYU Fales Library.

See All CALL Artists

Watch All CALL/VOCA Talks

Images in a grid: assistants working in a studio, partner logos, a spread from an Estate Planning Guide, and artist Tara Sabharwal speaking with Robin Clark.

Past Program Strategies & Milestones

In 2007, the Foundation began exploring new ways to support mature artists in the thorough documentation and preservation of their life's work. Over the next decades, we worked closely with dozens of artists through the Creating a Living Legacy (CALL) initiative to support them in their individual legacy journeys, which culminated in the development of CALL resources now available to the public.

As we embark on the next chapter of our work, the Foundation seeks to galvanize the field to secure artist’s work, ideas, stories, and voices for the future–work that will require expansive thinking and collaboration between artists, their supporters, and institutions.

Read more about the evolution of our work in this area on the Foundation’s History page.

Foundation History

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A book cover reading "Joan Mitchell Foundation, Creating Future Memory: Building the Field of Artist Legacy Stewardship" overlaying a collage by Troy Montes Michie, in which yellowed pages and faded photographs are laid out in an irregular but careful grid of strict verticals and horizontals.

New Report, "Creating Future Memory,” Explores How We Can Collectively Build the Field of Artist Legacy Stewardship

What happens to an artist’s work, archives, and ideas when they are gone? What r...

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