1

T h o u g h t s ���on other people’s houses ���

���Site-specific���

Contemporary���Art happenings���

������������������������

Franklin Vagnone���Executive Director of The Historic House Trust of New York City���

���������������������������

F r a n k l i n D. V a g n o n e Executive Director of The Historic House Trust of New York City

2

Struggling  Museum  Now  Allowing  Patrons  To  Touch  Pain7ngs  

5 5

Mount Vernon Estate Virginia Built – 1757 to 1799 Began life as a house museum - 1858

Monticello Virginia Built – 1770- 1826 Began life as a house museum - 1923

Villa Savoye Poissy, France Built – 1928 - 1931 Began life as a house museum - 1997

v

v

Van Cortlandt House New York Built – 1748 Began life as a house museum - 1897

v

v

6 6

Olana Historic Site New York Built – 1870 to 1891 Began life as a house museum - 1966

Gamble House California Built – 1909 Began life as a house museum - 1966

Fallingwater Pennsylvania Built – 1937 Began life as a house museum - 1964

Eames House California Built – 1949 Began life as a house museum - 2006

v

v

v

v

Landscapes  as  se;ngs  for  contemporary    concepts  

Architecture  as  contemporary  innovator  

Interiors  as  site-­‐specific  installa7ons  

Interiors  as  se;ngs  for  contemporary  life  

Transcend  the  object-­‐ness  of  an  historic  site  and  seek  instead  its  essence  

 “the  value  of  a  house  is  the  dwelling  within  it”  

Diagram of fluid historic house management. ( Franklin Vagnone)

Traditional Artifact-based Placement within context Cerebral

Contemporary Experience-based

Immersive recombination Tactile

Rules of Civility Virginia Maksymowicz

2007 Powel House Museum

PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LANDMARKS, 2007

Anywhere but Now 2015

Wilton Historic House Museum, Richmond, VI National Society of the Colonial Dames, Think-tank with Chipstone Foundation

Karen Kilimnik 2007

Powel House Museum PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LANDMARKS, 2007

Various Contemporary installations 2006-2015

Merchants House Museum, NYC

The Machine Project, installation and performances 2014

Gamble House, Pasadena, CA Friends of the Gamble House, MAK, AXS Curiosity Festival

Touch History Kathleen Granados

2014-2015 Morris Jumel Mansion

Historic House Trust of New York City & Morris Jumel Mansion

Part of Fiber Philadelphia, 2008 International Fiber Biennial

Marie H. Elcin, Water, Water, Everywhere, Physick House Museum Caroline Lathan-Stiefel, Keeping it Under Wraps, Phuong X. Pham, Stasis, Extended, Powel House

Curated by Robert Wuilfe PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LANDMARKS

Unpacked Peter Hoffmeister

2014 Morris Jumel Mansion

Historic House Trust of New York City & Morris Jumel Mansion

Between Worlds Candy Depew:

2006 Physick House Museum Curated by Robert Wuilfe

PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LANDMARKS

23  

The past unravels 2012

Merchants House House, New Jersey Jersey Heritage

La Declaración Roxana Perez-Mendez

2007 Powel House Museum

Curated by Robert Wuilfe PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LANDMARKS

Philagrafika presents Megawords Powel House Museum

September, 2006 Curated by Robert Wuilfe

PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LANDMARKS

Fred Wilson: Mining the museums Yinka Shonibare: Brooklyn Museum Period Rooms

Richard Saja: Historically Incorrect

Party Time Yinka Shonibare

2009 The Ballantine Historic House of the Newark Museum

He named her Amber 2008-2009

The Grange Historic House Museum, Ontario, Canada Art Gallery of Ontario, The Grange Historic House

“From 1837 to 1841 Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed

shared this bed, not by necessity, but by choice.”

The Lincoln Bedroom 2013

Skylar Fein C24 Gallery, NYC

Playing Telephone With Ghosts Caitlin Emma Perkins

Various locations throughout 2007 Curated by Robert Wuilfe

PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LANDMARKS

LOOK PIMA Dance Group

2007 The Powel House, Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks

33  

The Loves of Aaron Burr: Contemporary art exhibition & CORSETED an immersive theater experience

Percentage changes as compared to same period previous year 420 rsvp to the opening event (compared to 75 average)

increase of %560 House attendance increased 30%

Gift shop + Attendance revenue increased 60%

CORSETED Immersive theater event, Morris Jumel Mansion, 2012, Carol Ward Exec. Director

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE DIVIDING LINE: A TRUE ACCOUNT IN NINE PARTS

David Gatten Powel House Museum

November 2006 PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LANDMARKS

Anarchist Guide to Historic House Museum Media artist projects 2011-2014

MET Period Rooms, Rosedale Historic House Museums, NC University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Anarchist Guide to Historic House Museum Media artist projects 2011-2014

Rosedale Historic House Museums, NC University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Powel House Ballroom 2009

Powel House, Philadelphia The Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks

Art- this- House 2015

Historic Richmond Town, Staten Island New York Historic House Trust of New York City & Staten Island Historical Society (HRT)

Site-specific installation at Dyckman Farmhouse Museum 2009

Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, NYC Dyckman Farmhouse Alliance

Lewis H. Latimer House LatimerNOW project 2015

Latimer House Museum Historic House Trust of New York City

Menokin Historic House Site 2015

Menokin, VI.

OPEN HOUSE: Matthew Mazzotta; Community Art Project: Daniel Eller 2013-2014

Coleman Center for the Arts (York, AL)

Writing on it all 2015

Lewis H. Latimer House Historic House Trust of New York City , Queens College, and Writing on it All

“If I ran the house museum” 2012-2015

Various historic house museums Historic House Trust of New York City

Anarchist Guide to Historic House Museum Community artist MOBILE KIOSK MET period rooms; Lewis H. Latimer LatimerNOW project

2011-2014 Historic House Trust of New York City

2009, THE ETHICS OF DUST.

In a two-week performance, Preservationist , Otero-Pailos and his team of architectural conservators scientifically transferred the pollution onto latex casts.

Gaasbeek Castle, Brussels Dennis Severs’ House, London

Mikhail Bulgakov House, Kiev

50  

Preliminary results for site-specific art happenings

Percent change as compared to same period previous year 420 rsvp to the opening event (compared to 75 average) increase of %560 House attendance increased 30% Gift shop + attendance revenue increased 60%

CORSETED Immersive theater event, Morris Jumel Mansion, 2012, Carol Ward Exec. Director

Landmarks Contemporary Projects Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks Powel House, Physick House 2006-2008

Percent change as compared to same period previous year Karen Klimnik Exhibit (Powel House – Philadelphia) House attendance increased 210% Gift shop + Attendance revenue increased 268%

Neon light Merchants House Museum 2006, Pi Grdiner Exec. Director

51  

TwistedPRESERVATION.wordpress.com (blog) @franklinvagnone (twitter)

The Anarchist Guide to Historic House Museums Thoughts on Other People’s Houses

Deborah E. Ryan and Franklin D. Vagnone

Left Coast Publishers, Fall 2015