NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

Robert Kushner's Food Fashion Show, 2010
Artist Robert Kushner recently created a revival of his noted 1972 performance piece Robert Kushner and Friends Eat Their Clothes. Planned in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, the food fashion show was held at New York City’s Astor Center for Food and Wine. Mr. Kushner narrated the show and participated in the following panel discussion which addressed the use of food in art, photography, and fashion. Elegant black and white prints of the costumes, photographed by Stanley Stellar, were selected from the Kushner Archive and served as a point of reference for the evening’s performance.

The collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tate Gallery in London, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and many other museums include works by Mr. Kushner. His mural installations can be seen in locations as diverse as the Ralieigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina and the Gramercy Tavern in New York City.

Winthrop+St.Germain provides archival services to artists, collectors, and artists’ estates and foundations. More information can be found at www.winthropstgermain.com

Paul Taylor Dance Company Celebrates Founder's 80th Birthday
For more than 55 of his 80 years Paul Taylor has been making dances, the first of them in 1954. This year, while his dancers receive high praise for performances at New York’s City Center, Taylor’s company and the public are celebrating the choreographer’s 80th birthday. The wide scope of Taylor’s choreography is evident at City Center where the 18 dances being performed include classics such as ‘Esplanade’, ‘Brandenburgs’, and ‘Piazzolla Caldera’ along with this year’s premieres of ‘Brief Encounters’ and ‘Also Playing’.

The New York Times dance critic Alastair Macaulay states that the current City Center season, which runs through March 14th, demonstrates again that Paul Taylor is “one of the most singular and searching imaginations of our time.” Undeterred by even the most difficult of subjects or complex of relationships, Taylor continues to create dances that engage, startle, and make his audiences think. Macaulay cannot help but refer to the choreographer as the ‘Beloved Renegade’, a title Taylor gave to a dance that had its City Center premiere in 2009.

While Mr. Taylor and the dancers are focused on the City Center performances, the company’s staff is preparing to move into its new location on Grand Street in lower Manhattan. The newly renovated space will house rehearsal studios, the school, Taylor 2, offices, costume and production support, and the Archives.

The Company’s commitment to maintaining a documentary record of Mr. Taylor’s work first bloomed in 1993, the year in which he made his 100th dance. That Repertory Preservation Project, one element of of which was development of the Paul Taylor Dance Archives, has resulted in collections that now include include paper, photographic, moving image, and digital documentation. Seventeen years after conducting that initial archives assessment and writing the archives planning report, Winthrop Group continues to provide the Paul Taylor Dance Company with archival processing and reference services on a retainer basis.

Why Management History Matters
Morgen Witzel, a Senior Consultant with The Winthrop Group, discusses "Why Management History Matters" in the upcoming issue of EFMD Global Focus, the business magazine of the European Foundation for Management Development. The recent economic crisis has brought renewed attention to the role of business and management history. But what, precisely, can we learn from history? As Witzel argues, history teaches us to challenge the present. "Why did the business models and management methods we use today evolve as they did? Why is the prevailing orthodoxy what it is? What other competing models and methods emerged and why were they discarded? Are we really managing in the best possible way that we can?" History, in short, can help managers become wiser, more discerning leaders, less vulnerable to fads, groupthink, and the quick-fix, and better able to distinguish the noise of management theory from what really matters.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ARTICLE
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New Winthrop Book: Venture Capitalist Peter A. Brooke
Winthrop is pleased to announce the publication of A Vision for Venture Capital: Realizing the Promise of Global Venture Capital & Private Equity (New Ventures Press/University Press of New England), by Peter A. Brooke, with Daniel Penrice.
A Vision for Venture Capital chronicles the distinguished career of Peter Brooke, one of the world's pioneering venture capitalists. Nicknamed "the Johnny Appleseed of venture capital" for his role in the industry's spectacular growth, Brooke argues that private equity is an essential element of economic growth and development. At a time when some believe that venture capital's best days are behind it, and private equity has come under renewed criticism, A Vision for Venture Capital, written with Winthrop's Daniel Penrice, offers a fresh look at the industry's history, and how it can fulfill its potential in the 21st century.
"Venture capital today is at last emerging as a truly global industry," writes Josh Learner, Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School. "This evolution validates Peter Brooke's vision of many decades ago, and his pioneering efforts in this arena. This book provides a fascinating retrospective of Peter's career, as well as a variety of insights about the likely evolution of the global venture industry."
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New Winthrop Book: Biography of Inventor Frank J. Sprague
Winthrop is pleased to announce the publication of Engineering Invention: Frank J. Sprague and the U. S. Electrical Industry, 1880-1900 (MIT Press), by Frederick Dalzell.

In just 20 years, inventor Frank J. Sprague (1857-1934) achieved an astonishing series of technological breakthroughs, from pioneering work in self-governing motors to the first full-scale operational electric railway system. A shrewd businessman, he also commercialized his inventions and promoted them to financial backers and the public.
In Engineering Invention, Winthrop's Frederick Dalzell sets Sprague's story against the backdrop of one of the most dynamic periods in the history of technology. In a burst of innovation during these years, Sprague and his contemporaries-Thomas Edison, Nicolas Tesla, George Westinghouse, and others-transformed the technologies of electricity and reshaped urban life. Dalzell reminds us that even as large corporations became the driving force of technological change, the independent inventor continued to play a vital role in promoting innovation.
"A study of Frank Sprague's important contributions to electrical history is long overdue," writes Paul Israel, Director and General Editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers Project at Rutgers University. "Frederick Dalzell does this in impressive fashion while using Sprague's life and career to inquire into the nature of technological innovation and the role of the heroic inventor in American industry."
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Benjamin Z. Brown Joins Winthrop Group
Benjamin Z. Brown has accepted an Archivist position with Winthrop Group in New York City. Prior to joining Winthrop Group, he worked at the Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives processing the institutional papers of the Office of the Handbook of North American Indians, among other projects.  He also interned with the National Archives and Records Administration. Benjamin holds an MLS with a focus on archives and records Management from the University of Maryland and is a member of the Society of American Archivists.
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Linda Edgerly Quoted in Financial Times
The fate of archives programs during times of economic downturn are often uncertain. A recent Financial Times article examines this matter, focusing on the plight of business archives in the United States and the United Kingdom, with input from Winthrop Group’s managing director, Linda Edgerly, among others. “Historians Look to the Future” highlights the valuable insights gleaned from the archives and the services archivists provide to support their corporate entities during difficult economic times.

Please click here to read the complete article: Historians Look To The Future.
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Cleveland Clinic Is In The News
Winthrop client, Cleveland Clinic, is front and center in the news at present because of the appealing model it presents with respect to health care reform options in the US. Like several other hospitals, including the Mayo Clinic and the much smaller Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown, New York, Cleveland Clinic has distinguished itself by achieving better patient outcomes while paying doctors salaries rather than fees for service. (See www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/health/policy/25doctors.html.

Even before the public debate about healthcare heated up, Cleveland Clinic was recognized for its accomplishments. These and the history behind them are examined in the the video “All for One: The Story of the Cleveland Clinic” which won a Silver Telly Award in 2008. Produced by Telos Productions of Cleveland, Ohio, the script was co-authored by Winthrop’s Davis Dyer and Tom Ball of Telos Productions. An excerpt of the film is featured on Winthrop Group’s website: Video, Multimedia, & the Web.

The Telly Awards were established in 1978 to showcase the very best local, regional, and national television commercials, programming, and other film and video productions by the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, and corporate video departments around the world.

“All for One” was the third Telly Award winner for the Winthrop-Telos partnership, which previously received Bronze Tellys for “Fred Crawford: Celebrating 100 Years” and “Everybody Wins, A History of the Progressive Corporation, 1937-1983”.
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WINTHROP+ST.GERMAIN in Valencia, Spain
Institut Valencia D’Art Modern
May-November 2009
Janine St.Germain, who has cataloged both artwork and archives of performing and visual artist Christopher Knowles, recently traveled to Valencia, Spain to assist with an exhibit of Mr. Knowles’ artwork at the Institute of Modern Art. In advance of the exhibition, Ms. St.Germain assisted with the logistical planning for Mr. Knowles’ installation. At the Institute she provided support with the installation of his work for “Visions of the Frontier,” an exhibition curated by theater artist Robert Wilson.
 “Visions of the Frontier,” is one of four installations that comprises a large-scale exhibition entitled Confines, Pasajes de las Artes Contemporaneas. The show celebrates the museum’s 20th anniversary. Robert Wilson featured the work of Mr. Knowles including paintings, sculpture, site-specific drawings, and a selection of illustrations by the artist created on a manual typewriter. The exhibition also included sound recordings by the artist dating back to Mr. Knowles’ and Mr. Wilson’s earliest performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Ms. St.Germain, who has worked with Christopher Knowles’ archive since 2001, also has assisted with the archival resources of artists such as Robert Kushner, Debbie Harry, Jane Wilson, Lenore Tawney and Richard Lippold.

Confines, Pasajes de las Artes Contemporaneas
Institut Valencia d’Art Modern
Valencia, Spain
28 May- 15 November
http://www.ivam.es
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Margaret B.W. Graham Contributes to New Publication
The Winthrop Group’s Margaret B.W. Graham has contributed to a new publication from the Stanford University Press.
The Challenge of Remaining Innovative: Insights from Twentieth Century American Business, edited by Sally H. Clarke, Naomi R. Lamoreaux, and Steven W. Usselman, examines innovation as a complex phenomenon. The contributors explore two main themes: the challenge of remaining innovative and the necessity of managing institutional boundaries in doing so. Graham provides an interesting look at innovation in her article, “Corning as Creative Responder: A Schumpterian Interpretation of Disruptive Innovation”, found in Chapter Two of the book.
Richard N. Langlois of The University of Connecticut writes, "In The Challenge of Remaining Innovative, a stellar group of authors asks anew the Schumpeterian questions of innovation, the corporation, and the state. The result is a sophisticated and nuanced volume that will find itself at the center of future scholarship in this area."

Please visit the Stanford University Press to read more reviews or to purchase the book: http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=11605
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Sales Push LePatner Book Into Paperback
The success of Barry B. LePatner's Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets, written with Winthrop's Timothy Jacobson, has led University of Chicago Press to release the book in paperback. An in-depth study of the U.S. construction industry,
Broken Buildings examines the causes of inordinate cost overruns in everything from residential home-building and commercial construction to home renovations. LePatner, a New York lawyer specializing in the construction industry, explains how business, government, and the individual consumer fall prey to the inefficient practices of all parties involved in a major construction project, from contractors, designers, and suppliers to workers and labor unions. LePatner provides a blueprint for tackling this problem, including tougher contracts, background checks, and hiring experts to monitor builders.

To read the original review in the Wall Street Journal, click here: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119681431154013727.html.
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