Building Ecosystems of Stewardship

Legacy stewardship is essential to the long-term care of artists’ work, yet remains vastly under-supported across the art field. While artists may engage with institutions throughout their careers, few are introduced to the tools, resources, or knowledge needed to preserve their legacies. This panel asks how organizations—across scales and sectors—can help close that gap.

Panelists will explore how legacy care can become an integrated responsibility across the arts ecosystem, and what it takes to move from individual passion to institutional commitment. From funding and infrastructure to board engagement and fieldwide advocacy, this conversation will surface emerging models, shared challenges, and the collective potential to build a more supportive, sustainable future for legacy stewardship.

SPEAKER BIOS

Ryan Flahive (Session Chair)

An accomplished archivist and cultural heritage professional, Ryan S. Flahive specializes in preserving artist legacies and ensuring the long-term accessibility of creative archives. With over 15 years of experience, he helped spearhead archival initiatives for institutions such as the Institute of American Indian Arts, Poeh Cultural Center (Pojoaque Pueblo), and the Sharlot Hall Museum. Passionate about documenting artistic contributions, Flahive has secured significant funding for preservation projects and developed policies for ethical stewardship. As a national advisor and educator, Flahive actively shapes archival practices to honor artists' narratives and cultural histories for future generations.

Josh T. Franco

Josh T. Franco is collector at large at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art. He first joined the Archives as Latino collections specialist in 2015. Prior to joining the Smithsonian, he was an artist-guide at Judd Foundation, 101 Spring Street, while completing his PhD in art history at Binghamton University, SUNY.

Alex Klein

Alex Klein is the Head Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Contemporary Austin. Prior to her current role, she held positions at organizations including the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania (ICA), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. She is the curator of two legacy survey exhibitions, Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses and Barbara Kasten: Stages, for which she worked closely with the artists and in their archives to bring renewed attention to their practices. Beginning in 2016, she also organized the website, podcast, and institutional partnership series I is for Institute, which documents the work of individuals in contemporary arts organizations to shape and reimagine the field.

Nicholas Lowe

Nicholas Lowe is an interdisciplinary artist, teacher, project manager, and curator. He is known for his photography, video, and installation works from the 1980s and 90s that focus on experiences of AIDS and HIV. Lowe has also worked in prisons and with farming communities in the UK, to facilitate opportunities where the details and information from personal archives and from first-voice accounts are offered as a commentary upon prevailing social conditions. Lowe has facilitated exhibitions, publications, and archival collecting. Alongside his tenure as Associate Professor in Historic Preservation, he is curator of the Goat Island Archive and advisor to the Roger Brown Study Collection, a special collection of the School of The Art Institute of Chicago.