Guest Lecture Video: Amy Whitaker
On September 22, 2022, MFA Products of Design was pleased to host a guest lecture by writer, educator, and advocate Sara Hendren.
Amy Whitaker was a founding member of the faculty in SVA's MFA in Products of Design where she taught Business Structures. She is currently an Associate Professor at New York University in the Steinhardt School’s department of art and art professions. She teaches business to artists, art to businesspeople, and economics to arts managers. She started her career in art museums including the Guggenheim, MoMA, and Tate. Although she is known for working across art and business, her original background is in political science, which she studied at Williams College. She also holds a PhD in political economy, an MFA in painting, and an MBA. Amy is the author of three books: Museum Legs (Hol Art Books), Art Thinking (HarperCollins), and Economics of Visual Art: Market Practice and Market Resistance (Cambridge). Her work has received the Sarah Verdone Award for writing, the Edith Penrose Award for “trailblazing” research, and the Axiom Silver Medal for best business book of the year. Her newest book, The Story of NFTs: Art, Technology, and Democracy, co-authored with Nora Burnett Abrams, will be published by Rizzoli in February 2023. One of the earliest blockchain researchers in the arts, her work has been cited in The Atlantic, Harpers, The Guardian, Financial Times, Time, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, among others. A longtime teacher and advisor, she has served as a mentor to TED Fellows, New Museum Incubator members, and Joan Mitchell Foundation grantees.
