Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts tagged as “Museum of Modern Art”

Former Goldman Sachs Partner Edith Cooper Joins Board of Directors of Etsy

By goodblacknews on March 28, 2018
Edith Cooper (photo via business insider.com)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
According to etsy.com, Edith Cooper, the former Partner and Global Head of Human Capital for Goldman Sachs, has been appointed to Etsy, Inc.’s Board of Directors, effective April 5, 2018.  Etsy, Inc. (Nasdaq: ETSY), is known as an online leader in the global marketplace for unique and creative goods.
“With Edith joining the board, we gain significant talent-management expertise, based on years of experience at leading global financial institutions. We are also honored that a person who called Brooklyn her home for many years is now working hand-in-hand with us to make our tech company even more successful,” said Josh Silverman, Etsy, Inc. CEO. “We are looking forward to Edith bringing her wealth of knowledge to Etsy, providing guidance as we continue driving growth and empowering the 1.9 million creative entrepreneurs who rely on our marketplace.”
Throughout her career, Ms. Cooper has used her broad experience in finance and focus on human capital to unlock innovation and collaboration in the workplace. At Goldman Sachs, she pioneered the use of data, analytics, and technology to maximize investments in people and leverage talent across the enterprise. She spearheaded Goldman Sachs’ groundbreaking company-wide conversation series on diversity and inclusion, designed to tie business goals to equity and social issues in order to empower all of the talent of the firm.  Cooper was also responsible for the recruitment, development, promotion, and well-being of the firm’s 35,000 people around the world. She has held various leadership roles as well at Morgan Stanley and Bankers Trust.  Cooper also is a member of the Board of Directors of Slack, the Museum of Modern Art and Mt. Sinai Hospital.
“Etsy’s mission to ‘Keep Commerce Human’ and its culture is revolutionary in the tech space. I have long admired Etsy’s drive to create value by investing in its people and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace,” said Edith.  “I am honored to join the Board as Etsy continues to connect creative entrepreneurs with buyers around the world.”
With Edith’s appointment, Etsy’s Board has expanded, while retaining gender parity. She is also joining the Compensation Committee of the Board. Etsy was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York.

HISTORY: Rosa Parks House in Berlin Returns Home to America

By goodblacknews on September 2, 2017

Ryan Mendoza, an American artist, in front of the exhibit he made in Berlin of the Rosa Parks house. (photo: Gordon Welters/NY TIMES)

by Yonette Joseph via nytimes.com
LONDON — In a backyard in Berlin, a ramshackle house that was once a haven for the civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks is preparing for its third life — back in the United States. It had almost been lost to history, falling into blight, abuse and foreclosure, in Detroit. But in 2016, the American artist Ryan Mendoza shipped the dismantled facade in two containers to his home in Germany. There, it was restored as an art exhibit in his garden in the Wedding neighborhood.
Then the strange and itinerant journey of the wood-frame house took another turn recently, when a member of the Nash Family Foundation, based in Manitowoc, Wis., formally agreed to pay for its passage back.“I never wanted to rebuild it in my backyard,” Mr. Mendoza said by phone from Berlin. “But I wanted to protect it.”“ It’s time for the house to return home,” he added. “It’s needed for people to have another major point of reference for how to treat each other with dignity. This will be a marker on the ground.”
While the house has a ticket back to America, the question of where it would find a permanent home remains unanswered. The hurdles seem huge, the logistics daunting, but calls and emails have gone out for help to institutions including Brown University in Rhode Island, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit and the Brooklyn Museum, among others, Mr. Mendoza said. At least two institutions — Brown and Wright — said they were seriously considering the project. “The house has a symbolic importance — it’s important in the narrative of her life,” said James Nash, a board member and the driving force behind the foundation’s pledge. “She suffered for a huge act of courage. It should be here, not in Berlin.”
To read full article, go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/world/europe/rosa-parks-house-berlin.html?_r=0

Earliest Surviving Footage for a Feature Film with a Black Cast to Be Exhibited by Museum of Modern Art

By goodblacknews on September 23, 2014
Footage from what may be the earliest surviving feature film with a black cast, made in 1913. (Credit: Bert Williams, “Lime Kiln Field Day Project”, via Museum of Modern Art)

For decades, the seven reels from 1913 lay unexamined in the film archives of the Museum of Modern Art. Now, after years of research, a historic find has emerged: what MoMA curators say is the earliest surviving footage for a feature film with a black cast. It is a rare visual depiction of middle-class black characters from an era when lynchings and stereotyped black images were commonplace. What’s more, the material features Bert Williams, the first black superstar on Broadway. Williams appears in blackface in the untitled silent film along with a roster of actors from the sparsely documented community of black performers in Harlem on the cusp of the Harlem Renaissance. Remarkably, the reels also capture behind-the-scenes interactions between these performers and the directors.

MoMA plans an exhibition around the work called “100 Years in Post-Production: Resurrecting a Lost Landmark of Black Film History,” which is to open on Oct. 24 and showcase excerpts and still frames. Sixty minutes of restored footage will be shown on Nov. 8 in the museum’s annual To Save and Project festival dedicated to film preservation.

“There are so many things about it that are amazing,” said Jacqueline Stewart, a film scholar at the University of Chicago. “It’s the first time I’ve seen footage from an unreleased film that really gives us insights into the production process.”

She added: “It’s an interracial production, but not in the way scholars have talked about early film history, in which black filmmakers had to rely on the expertise and money of white filmmakers. Here, we see a negotiation between performers and filmmakers.” Of the three directors of the film, one was black and two were white.