Paradigm Shifts: Centering Diverse Cultural Approaches to Legacy Stewardship

This panel highlights the cultural perspectives that are shaping the past, present, and future of legacy stewardship. Artists and legacy workers from a range of traditions will share how their cultural values, cosmovisions, and community-centered approaches inform their work, offering their insights into preserving and passing on artistic legacies. These approaches enrich how we think about legacy care, making space for more inclusive practices.

While the field of legacy stewardship is still being built, panelists will discuss the challenges they’ve faced in navigating an evolving landscape and the vital role of community and collaborative networks in this work. This conversation invites us to consider how these approaches inform and/or challenge the broader value systems of the field, while offering valuable frameworks for all who are invested in the future of legacy stewardship.

SPEAKER BIOS

Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski (Session Chair)

Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski is an artist, archivist, living in Saint Paul. She holds a BA in Design Studies, from Goldsmiths, University of London, an MA in Archives and Records Management from UCL, and is currently completing a PhD at Chelsea College of Arts, University of Arts London/Tate. She is the author of Ronald Moody: Sculpting Life (Thames & Hudson, 2024). She is currently the Project Manager for the recently established George Morrison Catalogue Raisonné Project, a phased ongoing endeavor to preserve and safeguard the artistic practice and legacy of George Morrison. In collaboration with art historian and archivist Alexandra Nicome, she is also part of the archival and curatorial team for The Black Gate, a radical archival legacy project founded by multidisciplinary artist Seitu K. Jones. Her research explores the synergy between (self) archiving as a curatorial method and artistic practice, and is grounded in Black feminisms and DIY Queer culture/s.

Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick

Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick is an artist, curator, and educator from Mōkapu, a peninsula on the windward side of Oʻahu, in U.S. occupied Hawaiʻi. Raised in a deep-rooted matriarchy, his work is guided by the multigenerational efforts of queer folk and Kānaka ʻŌiwi women, who have devoted their lives to art, education, organizing, and community in Hawaiʻi. In 2020 he co-founded kekahi wahi, a grassroots film initiative documenting stories of transformation across Moananuiākea, the greater Pacific. He holds a MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (2019).

Whitney Mashburn

Whitney Mashburn is a Disabled independent curator and writer. Her work navigates the intersection of contemporary art and accessibility activism via relational curating—valuing artists over art objects. Her current project, a living archive entitled "Holding Space," bears witness to the lived experiences of those marginalized by chronic illness and disability through artist interviews and manifestos, exhibitions and a permanent collection, and community-building events and resources. Her other research and projects collaboratively investigate tactile aesthetics and institutional critique via social practice. She holds an MA in Critical and Curatorial Studies, an MA in Disability Studies and Counselor Education, and a BA in History of Art and Studio Art from Vanderbilt University. She lives on the ancestral lands of the Massachusett, Pokanoket, and Wampanoag peoples, colonially known as Boston.