Managing & Consulting
The Institute for Artists’ Estates is the management body for artist estates.
An artist’s estate is successful if the work is kept alive and relevant, if later generations of artists remain inspired by the work, and if curators, academics and collectors continue to find new and invigorating ways to approach the oeuvre. This can be achieved if the estate itself proactively fosters the discourse surrounding the work by contextualising it, initiating exhibitions and confronting contemporary artists with the work.
Ideally, the artist will decide what will happen to their estate during their lifetime. However, many artists not only lack the resources necessary for this work but also do not have access to knowledge relevant to these issues. Estates, too, often require managerial support.
The Institute for Artists’ Estates is able to take on the complete management task for estates, to accompany living artists in the process of estate planning and to support independent artist’s estate management in a consultancy role.
We represent many years of experience advising and managing artists’ estates, including of Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Hans Arp, and the Bauhaus artist Wolfgang Tümpel and as such we have developed a particular sensitivity to the requirements and structures of artists’ estates.
Our management and consultancy service covers:
Structure and Strategic Decisions:
- Design of legal and internal structures appropriate for the specific requirements of the estate
- Financial plans and budgets, for profit and non-profit
- Definition of objectives and the steps to reach them
- Support in conception, legal considerations, appointment procedures of operational staff and members of scientific, advisory and authentification boards
Fundamental Internal Operations:
- Provision of outstanding service in the areas of professional restauration and conservation, registration and digitalisation, archiving and cataloguing services
- Creation of the catalogue raisonné: conception, financing and execution
- Creating and improving awareness and accessibility for members of the public, curators and researchers via all relevant communications channels
Art World Management:
- Museums: developing an appropriate museum strategy from simple permanent loans, to foundations, gift/purchase programmes and initiating museum exhibitions
- Academia: developing concepts for academic approaches to the archive and work, together with fellowship programmes
- Art market: selecting the best art galleries/art dealers for the specific work; managing relations with the galleries and auction houses; supporting secondary market activities