Partnerships

Partnerships

“An artist’s estate is successful when it is able to keep the work alive: when subsequent generations of artists draw inspiration from it and when curators, researchers, and collectors continuously find new ways to approach it. This goal is achieved when the estate initiates dialogue and exhibitions, contextualizes the work, and makes it accessible to contemporary artists.” (Würtenberger, L., 2016, p.152)

To achieve the goals, ambitions and activities of your estate, it is recommended to engage in partnerships, whether new or existing, with the goal of promoting and supporting the artistic legacy. Partnerships play a crucial role in the perpetuation of the legacy. This applies to organisations and living artists as well as deceased ones. Partnerships help to keep the artist’s work alive and to inspire new generations of curators, researchers and collectors.

Looking for partners, especially external ones, offers benefits for achieving various potential goals. Below is a short summary of the possible benefits of partnerships:

• Partnerships can help the estate achieve its stated goals. For example, by offering extra support, expertise and skills for current or future projects and the running of the estate.
• Partnerships can be engaged in to promote the legacy and increase its visibility, both nationally and internationally. External partners can act as ambassadors for the legacy.
• Partnerships bring new possibilities, insights and projects. Aside from contributions to content, partnerships also offer practical support, such as providing (financial) resources, space and material to achieve the stated goals.
• Partnerships can motivate and inspire the estate to embark on new projects and goals.

Within the running of the estate, it is necessary to take an active role and develop strategies to find partnerships. Work out what support you need to achieve the stated goals and tackle new or existing projects. It is recommended here to list your existing contacts and partnerships, and to consider the artist’s network. You can also check which of these partnerships can be included in the future of the estate and are necessary for its survival, which existing contacts have not yet been exploited, and where there are gaps in terms of the goals you want to achieve.

Furthermore, it is important for the estate to commit to networks with the aim of engaging in new partnerships. Take an active role yourself in establishing and maintaining contacts and offering and developing ideas. Dare to engage in dialogue by managing and contextualising the artistic legacy and by taking initiatives. Communicate about your activities, goals, progress and the results of your projects.

A fundamental aspect of obtaining partnerships is access to the estate, and hence to the different components of the artistic legacy. The legacy, and the archive and oeuvre in particular, need to be quickly and easily accessible to interested parties. To make the estate accessible and usable, it is important to create a searchable inventory of the archive and oeuvre and make it available. The CKV explains the steps you can take to achieve this in the section ‘How to get started with the legacy’ of this guide.

There are various possibilities within the field of culture for engaging in partnerships with museums, the academic world, the art market and local organisations. These four possible forms of partnership are interlinked. For example, research inspires curators, exhibitions attract the attention of collectors and so on. That is why it is necessary to pay sufficient attention to these four possibilities for partnerships. To maintain contacts, you can devise the necessary strategies within the running of your estate, such as inviting them to exhibition openings, keeping them up to date in a newsletter or organising specific events.

Finally, in addition to engaging in partnerships to realise your goals, ambitions and activities, you can also consider transferring some of the management of the estate to an external partner or partners. It is important here to develop the right strategies and make the right choices. Responsibility for management and the various arrangements that govern this can vary. The section on ‘Management’ discusses the possibilities for external management of the artistic legacy.

Be sure to consult the ‘Making your legacy accessible’ page in this guide for more information.

Museum

An important starting point for the estate is to engage in partnerships with the museum world. A partnership with a museum can take various forms, including the organisation of solo or group exhibitions, loaning works of art or contributing to academic research for an exhibition or publication. Moreover, it is also possible to donate and sell works to museums, for example to fill gaps in their (permanent) collection or to finance part of the management of the legacy.

The potential goals of partnerships with museums are increasing visibility and attention, providing context, and generating the opportunity for research, new insights and reinterpretation. Such partnerships offer the opportunity to put the artist’s oeuvre into a broad cultural, artistic or historical context, and also to expose a new generation of contemporary artists to the oeuvre. The work is placed in a different context that allows reinterpretation and may inspire new projects. Furthermore, such partnerships offer the possibility to exhibit and research lesser-known work. They provide the option to promote the legacy and make it visible at both national and international level. Lastly, they give new generations of artists, researchers and curious people the opportunity to discover the artist and artistic practice.

Besides support for the running and promotion of the estate, a partnership with a museum also offers possibilities to use their facilities, such as storage space (even temporarily). Arrangements can also be made for the use of the museum’s database. This might provide extra time to look for suitable storage space or help you make decisions about further surveying and opening up the legacy.

If you want to engage in partnership with a museum, it is recommended to take an active role and establish contact with curators and museum directors yourself. A first step towards this may be looking at the artist’s CV and where they had exhibitions in the past, in order to revive these contacts and gain information about potential interest in working with the estate. Dare to take the initiative here, put forward ideas for exhibitions and ask about developing them further together.

Artistic legacy of Veerle Rooms:

The Veerle Rooms Foundation works closely with the Museum Plantin-Moretus and Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library to make Veerle Rooms’ artistic legacy and the range of graphic techniques that recur in her artistic practices visible in the long term.

(Veerle Rooms)

Academic world

Besides working with museums, it is also worthwhile to engage in partnerships with the academic world. For example, the estate can work with universities, art schools and art academies, with the goal of familiarising a new generation of artists with the artist’s work and artistic practice, as well as promoting research on the legacy.

One of the partnership possibilities consists of involving students from an academic or technical programme in the estate, in the form of a work placement or master’s thesis. Academic research in the arts is often the first option to cross people’s minds here, but technical research (e.g. conservation and restoration) may also be worthwhile, certainly if the oeuvre presents challenges in that respect. Bringing in students can offer support in terms of both content and practical help with the running of the estate. Additionally, a partnership with a school or student can contribute to achieving the different goals and completing new or existing projects. Do ensure that the work placements and research are beneficial and enriching for both parties. In other words, they need to be worthwhile for both the estate and the educational programme.

Another possibility is to offer tours and workshops within the academic world that combine theory and practice. During these sessions, you can familiarise the new generations with the artist and artistic practice. This offers an opportunity to learn from the original work and focus on the different components of the artist’s life and legacy.

To promote this form of partnership and academic research, one option is for the estate to organise study days or lectures. At these gatherings, you can talk about the goals and activities of the estate, the results of the research, and the artist’s artistic practice. It is a way to bring people together, to acquaint them with the artistic legacy, spark discussions and take initiatives for new partnerships. Depending on the budget, it may also be possible to set up grants to finance research.

Not every estate has the scope or opportunity to take initiatives for research, to accommodate people or guide them through the artist’s work and artistic practice. Think carefully about what is possible for your estate in terms of promoting and communicating about academic research.

More and more estates and legacies are opting to transfer their archive to a collection-managing institution. This is done with the aim of stimulating research, improving accessibility and opening up the artistic legacy in the long term. Good examples of this are the transfers of the archives of artists such as Raphaël Buedts, Philippe Vandenberghe, Raoul De Keyser and Philippe Van Snick to Ghent University Library (De Boekentoren).

(Nele Luyts – CKV)

Art market

Another possibility for engaging in partnerships is to work with the art market. Many artists work with galleries during their lifetime. It can also be useful for the estate to engage in or maintain such relationships. Look at the artist’s network and the galleries they have worked with. Contact them to ask whether they might be interested in continuing to promote the artistic legacy. The right match is always important. Does the gallery represent similar artists or artists from the same period or artistic discipline?

Partnerships with the art market will influence the estate’s market strategy. Such partnerships may help to strengthen the artist’s market position, for example, and contribute to interest in their oeuvre. Furthermore, the sale of works can be a way to finance the continuation of the estate’s work, and it can increase your visibility. That makes it possible to organise exhibitions in galleries. Do take into account that these institutions are linked to the economic and commercial aspect of the arts sector, and that they influence the market. So it is best to stick to a good tempo: not too much and not too little.

As well as exhibitions, some galleries also offer support and financial resources for publications, perhaps at the same time as an exhibition. Make clear agreements and establish various strategies for the estate’s possibilities. Galleries are the new ambassadors, contributing to the promotion, visibility and accessibility of the artistic legacy.

Artistic legacy of Guy Vandenbranden (1926-2014)

During his lifetime, the visual artist Guy Vandenbranden donated his personal archive and copyright to the Callewaert-Vanlangendonck Gallery in Antwerp. After his death, the gallery consulted the family on the transfer of the entire oeuvre. In 2014, this led to the establishment of the Guy Vandenbranden estate, which is run in close collaboration with the gallery.

As well as working with this estate, the gallery also works with the Jan Dries estate (in Dutch). In both cases, they are actively committed to making the artists’ work visible to a wider audience. The gallery does this by organising regular exhibitions including a retrospective, stimulating research and producing publications.

(Callewaert-Vanlangendonck Gallery)

Local organisations

Many estates also consider their local surroundings and the potential for new partnerships there. This aspect recurred several times on visits to existing estates and organisations. Local partnerships offer the potential for awakening local interest and reaching a diverse audience by appealing to different target groups. It is a way of increasing the visibility and accessibility of the legacy. Moreover, an estate can respond to local tourism by making the artistic legacy more visible in the streets.

To support the running of the estate, it is worth considering the local projects to which you can contribute. This may be understood very broadly, from Heritage Day to Monument Day to a cultural market. For example, various estates open up the artist’s (former) studio and home to the public, to tell the story of the artist’s life and career. Other possibilities include organising open studio days or participating in temporary exhibitions in a cultural centre. Inviting a contemporary artist to participate in an exhibition project may spark dialogue with the artistic legacy.

Additionally, the estate can play an active role by reflecting with others on the (contemporary) art in the community and how to make it more visible to the general public. One way to do this is by organising walks focused on contemporary art visible in the streets.

If you are interested in a local partnership, you can contact the heritage working group (erfgoedcel) and/or intercommunal heritage building service (IOED, intergemeentelijk onroerenderfgoeddienst) for your town or region, to discuss the possibilities. These organisations can support this decision and advise the estate. In some cases, these partnerships can also lead to volunteers or resources (e.g. for communication) being allocated.

Artistic legacy of Ado Hamelryck (1941-2024)

As part of the Art Heritage Legacies pilot project, the CKV, ECRU Heritage Working Group (in Dutch) and project worker Heleen Van Loon conducted a thorough archive audit on Ado Hamelryck’s artistic legacy. This audit enabled us to formulate targeted recommendations for opening up the legacy in the long term, with digitisation identified as the first step. Along with ECRU Heritage Working Group and in consultation with the family, we examined the possibilities for the preservation and management of the legacy, with a particular focus on the archive.

Interested to read more? Go to the next page: Lifespan.