András Szántó

András Szántó
Born	(1964-01-01) January 1, 1964 (age 57) Budapest, Hungary
Alma mater	Corvinus University, Budapest (BA) & Columbia University, New York (Ph.D.)
Spouse(s)	Alanna Stang
Website	http://www.andras-szanto.com

András Szántó (born January 1, 1964) advises museums, foundations, educational institutions, and leading brands worldwide on cultural strategy. He is a widely published author and editor whose writings have appeared in The New York Times, Artforum, The Art Newspaper, and many international publications. He has directed the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University and has overseen the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.^[1][2] He has been conducting conversations with art-world leaders since the early 1990s, including as a frequent moderator of the Art Basel Conversations series.^[3] Born in Budapest, Hungary, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.^[4]

Life & Career[]

After a youth spent in Budapest and London, Szántó attended the Budapest University of Economics (now Corvinus University). His bachelor's thesis investigated Stalinist-era persecution in Eastern Europe and was published as a bestselling book in 1989, when he was 25.^[5]

By then Szántó had moved to New York to pursue graduate studies in sociology. At Graduate Center, CUNY his interests gravitated to cultural sociology. With Robert Alford he conducted a study on classical pianists.^[6][7] In 1989, he moved to Columbia University, where, as a Lazarsfeld Fellow, he shifted his focus to the institutions of the visual art world and formed a close friendship with his advisor, Arthur Danto, the philosopher and art critic. He regularly published journalism and worked as an analyst at the Media Studies Center, a think-tank. His 1996 Ph.D. dissertation, Gallery Transformations in the New York Art World in the 1980's, was an early example of the sociological analysis of the institutional dynamics of art.^[8]

From 1997 to 2005, Szántó was deputy director, and subsequently director, of the National Arts Journalism Program (NAJP), ^[9][10] in association with Columbia's schools of Journalism^[11] and Arts.^[12][13] There he organized influential conferences and led benchmark studies on media coverage of the arts, including the first-ever survey of art critics in America ^[14] Later, between 2005 and 2010 he directed the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia.^[15] Other appointments have included Research affiliate, Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, Princeton University; visiting critic, American Academy in Rome; and senior visiting fellow, Center for Arts and Culture, Washington, DC. Szántó has lectured on sociology at Columbia University and at Barnard College and taught art business and marketing communications at the Sotheby's Institute of Art in New York.^[16]

Szántó’s professional focus is strategy consulting for leading cultural institutions and corporations, worldwide.^[17] He has spearheaded the design and development of some of the world’s leading art-brand collaborations. As an author and editor, Szántó has produced dozens of books, research studies, and articles, including, most recently, The Future of the Museum: 28 Dialogues (2020), published by Hatje Cantz Verlag.^[18][19][20] A frequent speaker at cultural events, he has overseen four sessions of the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium, a twelve-day convening of museum directors at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.^[21][22] Since 2009, Szántó has moderated Art Basel Conversations at most sessions of the world’s leading art fair.^[23]

Publications, Journalism, & Commentary[]

Szántó's writing on arts and cultural institutions has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Art Newspaper, Artforum, The American Prospect, and other publications. In the field of public affairs, he was a correspondent for Magyar Narancs and has published op-ed articles in The Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times. He organized a 2007 conference at the New York Public Library on political propaganda, and edited the companion book of essays, What Orwell Didn't Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics.^[24]

Conferences, Talks, & Interviews[]

In 2012, he moderated and wrote the summary report of a Salzburg Global Seminar, entitled Public and Private Cultural Exchange-Based Diplomacy: New Models for the 21st Century. ^[25] Also in 2012, he participated in and wrote the summary report for the Asia Society's US-China Museum Directors Forum in Beijing.^[26]

Service & Family[]

Through his firm, Andras Szanto LLC, he consults on programming, marketing initiatives and strategic planning for corporations and non-profit organizations in the arts. His firm's non-profit clients include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. Corporate clients include Art Basel, The Absolut Company, and the Davidoff Art Initiative.^[27]

Szántó has served on the advisory boards of Apexart, The Alliance for the Arts, The Gordon Parks Foundation, and the George H. Heyman Center for Philanthropy at NYU. He is a Board member of the Moholy-Nagy Foundation^[28] and a US Trustee of the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP)^[29] in Bangalore, India.

He lives in New York City with his wife, Alanna Stang, and their two sons.

References[]

Selected publications[]

• Toward a Closer Understanding of Our Differences: Summary Report on the Second U.S.-China Museum Leaders Forum, Peggy Loar, Orville Schell, András Szántó, eds. New York: The Asia Society, 2015.
• From Bark to Snark: Arts Journalism Seeks Its Way in the Twenty-First Century. Journal of the Clark Art Institute, Vol. 16 (2015).
• What Orwell Didn't Know. New York: PublicAffairs, 2007.
• A Portrait of the Visual Arts: Meeting the Challenges of a New Era. Arthur Brooks, Kevin McCarthy, Elizabeth Ondaatje, András Szántó, eds. Santa Monica: RAND Research in the Arts, 2005.
• The New Gatekeepers: Emerging Challenges to Freedom of Expression in the Arts, Christopher Hawthorne and András Szántó, eds. New York: National Arts Journalism Project and DAP, 2004.
• A New Mandate for Philanthropy? U.S. Foundation Support for International Arts Exchanges. Washington, DC: The Center for Arts and Culture, 2003.
• Hot and Cool: Some Contrasts between the Visual Art Worlds of New York and Los Angeles in New York & Los Angeles: Politics, Society, and Culture: A Comparative View, David Halle, ed. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
• The Visual Art Critic: A Survey of Art Critics at General-Interest News Publications in America. New York: National Arts Journalism Project, 2002.
• Don’t Shoot the Messenger: Why the Art World and the Press Don’t Get Along in Unsettling Sensation: Arts-Policy Lessons from the Brooklyn Museum of Art Controversy, Lawrence Rothfield, ed. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001.

External links[]

• Appearances on C-SPAN