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Susie Sofranko, Director of Individual Giving at the "International Center of Photography" Museum in New York City, sits down to discuss her journey from the arts into development, her experiences at the Guggenheim and the Frick Museums, the role instagram plays in traditional photography (and generational divide), the impact young patrons have, the bureaucracy of choosing exhibitions, diversity, and gender roles/professionalism being taken seriously as a woman in the development world.
**COVID-19 UPDATE**
This was recorded prior to the epidemic in the U.S. While the museum is currently closed, they have incredible online/virtual programming and classes still occurring. You can learn more here: https://www.icp.org/news/engage-with-icp-from-anywhere
LEARN MORE ABOUT ICP: https://www.icp.org/
INSTA: @icp
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:
- First off, tell us a little more about the ICP community and your role?
- Why are you doing this? You’re a New York City girl. You were an art history major at the Macaulay honors college at CUNY. You then got a masters of art at Hunter college. Did you want to be in academia? Or become an artist? How do you end up in development?
- Want to ask you about a few different topics:
- -the photography community. How are photographers viewed differently or similar from other types of artists?
- Are there any stereotypes or generational differences you see? Let’s say tomorrow i wake and decide i want to be a photographer. What scrutiny am i going to potentially face?
- -millennials and Instagram. What’s with the obsessiveness with documenting every part of your life? There’s a popular hashtag picsoritdidnthappen. And using filters to show an altered landscape of the world. Is this helping us as a society or hurting us?
- -further on the Instagram question, what’s the reception or what are you hearing from the professional photography community?
- -impact and young people. How can Millennials make an impact to a museum, especially considering that the donation amounts are relatively small compared to some of your older donors or board members? How do we move the needle? What role do young patrons really play?
- -Development. You are a millennial. You are great at organizing millennials. But Millennials sometimes get categorized as being flaky, Or non committal. 1) is this true? 2) from a development perspective since you’re trying to build relationships, how do you overcome this? What strategies have you found to be most effective?
- -cultural sensitivity and bureaucracy. When is it appropriate for you to get involved in these conversations, especially as it pertains to potential donors and museum members, in terms of what they want to see and what will draw crowds?
- -diversity. How do you be sensitive and carefully bring people together from all different types of backgrounds? And do you find it personally difficult at all to be so inclusive?
- Let’s talk about you for sec: What are some personal fears or struggles you have had to overcome on your journey? Is it difficult being a young woman in non-profit work and being taken seriously in business?
- What is something you wish someone had told you 5 years ago, or you had told yourself, that you had to learn on your own? But would have made life so much easier had you known.
- How can we learn more about you and get connected to the ICP? What are the range of possibilities for involvement?
