John Hanhardt

	John Hanhardt Smithsonian American Art Museum Senior Curator for Media Arts   John Hanhardt has been the senior curator for media arts at the Smithsonian American Art Museum since September 2006. He is responsible for a media arts initiative at the museum which includes acquisitions, exhibitions, educational programs and archival research resources related to film, video and the media arts. In 2009, the museum acquired the complete estate archive of visionary artist Nam June Paik. Hanhardt, the leading expert on Paik and his global influence, is organizing the archive and the museum’s Nam June Paik Media Arts Center. Research into the archive will be the basis for a series of publications of Paik’s writings, a catalogue raisonné and a series of exhibitions. Hanhardt was the senior curator of film and media arts at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City from 1996 to 2006. From 1974 to 1996, he was curator and head of the film and video department at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Before that, he established the film department and film study collection at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minn. Among his many exhibition credits are “Bill Viola: Going Forth By Day” (2002), “The Worlds of Nam June Paik” (2000) and “Andy Warhol’s Video & Television” (1991). In addition to his contributions to a number of publications and catalogues, he was the editor of the influential anthology “Video Culture: A Critical Investigation,” published in 1986. Hanhardt holds a master’s degree in cinema studies from New York University (1970) and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester (1967).   http://www.americanart.si.edu