Soft Network empowers contemporary artists and those working with artist estates and archives to imagine and implement new and sustainable legacy models. Our mission is to provide space for shared dialogue around this critical yet overlooked field and to redress exclusions in art history.
Our core offering is a fully-funded program of support for estates and archives in need of assistance. Through research, archiving, public programs, digitization, exhibitions, and publications, Soft Network preserves and provides access to the work of vital yet often vulnerable experimental artists and those who care for them.
We envision a future where legacy planning and work is not an overwhelming burden and where all artists and their heirs have equal access to best practices and resources.
We envision an art world where the cultural preservation performed by legacy workers is visible, valued, and supported through expanded funding opportunities and collaborations with existing institutions and organizations.
We envision a robust community of legacy workers operating in a cooperative economy to care for a wide range of art practices.
We hope to inform and shape a more expansive and pluralistic approach to art history that inspires scholars, historians, writers, curators, and artists to make innovative and meaningful connections to creative cultures and times.
We value all artists and acknowledge that many artists are independent legacy workers themselves, recovering and engaging in lost art histories and stewarding at-risk narratives. We support artists’ varied approaches to and deep interest in legacy work as a valuable alternative mode of preservation and access.
We believe that artists and art workers thrive in community and that legacy work is a cooperative effort requiring generosity, sensitivity and trust. We value peer to peer networks and collaboration across disciplines and generations.
We are committed to equitable treatment and inclusion of individuals from all backgrounds, particularly those who have historically experienced discrimination based on identity or ability. We recognize the long history of exclusion and under-representation of artists and cultural workers who are disabled and/or identify as LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and/or female, and value the work currently being done to redress this issue.
We believe that caring for the legacy of an experimental artist often necessitates an experimental approach. We value the deep knowledge and expertise held by legacy workers in their various roles. As a foundation for our work, we value best practices in archiving, collections management, exhibition-making, scholarship, and art law.
We value the immense amount of work undertaken by artists and legacy workers, both physical and emotional, to ensure preservation of and access to an artist's work. We believe this labor should be fairly compensated.
Soft Network was established in 2021 by curator Chelsea Spengemann and artist Sara VanDerBeek, of the Stan VanDerBeek Archive, and expanded in 2022 with the participation of art historian Marie Warsh and artist Max Warsh, of the Estate of Rosemary Mayer. The founding members’ combined expertise considering the legacy of socially engaged, experimental artists working in time-based media and ephemeral practices uniquely positions our organization to support artists and estates with challenging legacy needs. Our backgrounds as curators, art historians, gallerists and artists inform our approach to the practical, conceptual and emotional rigor required of legacy work.
Chelsea Spengemann, Executive Director; Co-Founder, Soft Network
Marie Warsh, Deputy Director; Co-Founder, Soft Network
Yona Backer, Founder, Third Streaming; Alvin Baltrop Trust
Allen Frame, Artist; Educator; Advisor, Estate of Darrel Ellis
Mathwon Howard, Associate Vice President for Development, Yale University; Billops Hatch Advisory Board
Fawn Krieger, Artist; Program Director, The Keith Haring Foundation; Adjunct Instructor, The Cooper Union School of Art
Sara VanDerBeek, Artist; Educator; Co-Executor, Stan VanDerBeek Estate; Co-Founder, Soft Network
Max Warsh, Director, Yeh Art Gallery, St. John’s University; Co-director, Estate of Rosemary Mayer; Co-Founder, Soft Network