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New York, NY & Virtual | ArtTable’s Annual Leadership Series | Art at Risk: Censorship and the Fight for Creative Freedom
September 25 | 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
In today’s increasingly polarized cultural and political landscape, arts professionals are grappling with urgent questions: How do institutions remain true to their missions while navigating the risks of presenting complex or controversial narratives? What role does censorship play in shaping the stories we tell through exhibitions, acquisitions, publications, and programming?
ArtTable’s 2025 Annual Leadership Series returns with a timely conversation on the evolving responsibilities of arts institutions in an era of heightened scrutiny and constrained freedoms. This year’s panel features acclaimed artist Marilyn Minter, cultural leader and curator Sara Reisman, and art lawyer Katherine Wilson-Milne, in conversation with moderator Elizabeth Larison, Arts and Culture Advocacy Program Director at National Coalition Against Censorship. Scroll down to learn more about our panelists!
Together, these thought leaders will explore the challenges and strategies involved in sustaining truthful, inclusive storytelling across all areas of the arts ecosystem. From debates over funding and institutional values to efforts to protect curatorial independence and artistic freedom, the discussion will offer insights for anyone invested in the future of the arts.
Whether you work in a museum, manage a gallery, support artists through legal or philanthropic means, or collect and preserve art, this event offers critical perspectives and practical strategies for navigating today’s cultural crossroads.
Join us on September 25, 2025, for this vital dialogue and an opportunity to engage with leading voices at the intersection of art and public discourse. Immediately following the panel, we invite you to stay for a 40-minute in-person networking reception with light refreshments. This reception is a rare chance to continue the conversation with our esteemed panelists, ask follow-up questions, and build meaningful connections with fellow attendees across the arts industry.
About the Annual Leadership Series: This signature ArtTable program was initially launched in 2016, and since its inception, the series has fostered engaging conversations among prominent women and nonbinary professionals. It has provided a platform for these influential voices to discuss the most pressing and relevant topics within our industries.
Program Admission: This program is open to ArtTable members and member guests through September 1. If space allows, this program will open to the public on September 2.
- ArtTable Members – $45
- ArtTable Member Guest – $50
- General Admission – $55
- Virtual (ArtTable Member) – $20
- Virtual (General Admission) – $30
Not a member? Join today!
All program registration fees go toward event expenses and administrative costs for the organization.
Meet Our Panelists
Marilyn Minter (b. 1948, USA) is an artist based in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Marilyn Minter, Lehmann Maupin, Seoul, South Korea (2024). Marilyn Minter, LGDR, New York, NY (2023); Marilyn Minter, Lehmann Maupin, Hong Kong, China (2021); All Wet, Montpellier Contemporary (Mo.Co), Montpellier, France (2021); Smash, MoCA Westport, Westport, CT (2021); Fierce Women, The Cube, Moss Arts Center, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA (2020); Nasty Woman, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah GA (2020); among others. From 2015 through 2017, her retrospective, Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty, traveled to the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (TX); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (CO); the Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach (CA); and the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn (NY). Her video Green Pink Caviar was on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York from 2010-2011.
Minter is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant (2006) and the Guggenheim Fellowship (1998). Minter’s work is in the collections of many museums globally, including the the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (CA); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (CA); (MA); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (NY); the Perez Art Museum, Miami (FL); the Tate Modern, London (U.K); the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (NY); and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (NY), among many others.
Minter is represented by Salon 94, New York, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, Lehmann Maupin, Hong Kong/Seoul.
Sara Reisman is a curator, educator, and writer based in New York City. Her curatorial and educational engagements have focused on socially engaged art, the history of exhibition making, public art, both temporary and permanent, artist books, and the intersections between art and activism. She has held roles in curatorial, philanthropic, and educational capacities including Chief Curator at the National Academy of Design (2021-2025), Executive and Artistic Director of the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation (2014-2021), and Director of New York City’s Percent for Art Program (2008-2014), where she managed more than 100 permanent public art commissions across New York City’s five boroughs. Reisman has taught art history and contemporary art at the University of Pennsylvania and SUNY Purchase School of Art + Design, and since 2016, she has been on the faculty at the School of Visual Arts’ Curatorial Practice MA Program. In her most recent curatorial role at the National Academy, she organized large-scale thematic exhibitions including Past as Prologue: A Historical Acknowledgment, which examined the role of art in U.S. nation-building; Drawing as Practice; Consequences: A Parlor Game; Exercises in Imagination; and Sites of Impermanence.
Katie Wilson-Milne is a partner at the boutique law firm Schindler Cohen & Hochman LLP and advises clients in the art, cultural and creative communities, including art businesses, dealers, collectors, artists, and not-for-profit corporations in the art space on transactional matters related to the creation, purchase, sale, lending and financing of art, as well as gallery, auction house, and museum relationships and intellectual property matters. She also represents art clients in a wide variety of disputes including fraud, breach of contract, copyright infringement, and artist gallery relationships.
Katie also writes, teaches and speaks publicly about a variety of art law related topics. Katie teaches art law at the Yale Law School and co-hosts of The Art Law Podcast with Steve Schindler.
Elizabeth Larison is our panel moderator for this program. Elizabeth is Director of the Arts & Culture Advocacy Program at the National Coalition Against Censorship, a member of Don’t Delete Art, and a curator. Prior to joining NCAC, Elizabeth earned a BA in Human Rights and a MA in Curatorial Studies, and worked for organizations including Flux Factory, the Park Avenue Armory, and apexart.
ArtTable’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
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