Rhizome | About

MISSION

Rhizome is dedicated to the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology. Through open platforms for exchange and collaboration, our website serves to encourage and expand the communities around these practices. Our programs, many of which happen online, include commissions, exhibitions, events, discussion, archives and portfolios. We support artists working at the furthest reaches of technological experimentation as well as those responding to the broader aesthetic and political implications of new tools and media. Our organizational voice draws attention to artists, their work, their perspectives and the complex interrelationships between technology, art and culture.

HISTORY

Founded in 1996 by artist Mark Tribe as an intimate email list subscribed to by some of the first artists to work online and now a thriving nonprofit, Rhizome has played an integral role in the history, definition and growth of contemporary art engaged with technology and the Internet. Our website is a dynamic, interactive platform, rich in historical resources and updated continually with new art and commentary by a vast community. The Rhizome ArtBase was founded in 1999, as an online archive of digital art containing over 2,500 art works, acting as the bedrock of our leading digital preservation program.

ACCESS & MEMBERSHIP

Non-paying users of the Rhizome website can view all of the work in Rhizome’s ArtBase collection for free. They can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, Rhizome News; create a portfolio page or profile, and submit work to the ArtBase.
Rhizome Members have advanced access to the website and the ability to use a variety of tools. They can view the full record of individual artworks; annotate and comment on works; curate online exhibitions, and vote in our commissions program.
Organizational subscriptions are available to institutions, such as universities, art schools, art centers, libraries, clubs, through our Organizational Subscriptions program. These Subscriptions allow staff, faculty, students to gain access to all of Rhizome.org's features and services for free. For schools and organizations in poor or excluded areas, Rhizome has different organizational access program: contact zoe.salditch{at}rhizome.org for details.

WEBSITE

The current Rhizome site launched on January 17th, 2011.

Project Director Nick Hasty

Lead Developer David Nolen

Design Shual / Mushon Zer-Aviv

Design Assistant Ed Nacional

Additional Design John Michael Boling

DB/Archiving Consultant Ward Smith

Read more about the site development process on our site launch post.

The site runs on a number of open-source platforms, such as Django, MySQL, CouchDB, Mootools, and Blueprint.

CONTACT

Rhizome is located within the New Museum at:
235 Bowery
New York, NY
10002

Phone: 1 (212) 219-1288

General: info{at}rhizome.org

Editorial pitches: Michael Connor at editor{at}rhizome.org

Membership: Zoe Salditch at zoe.salditch{at}rhizome.org

All staff: firstname.lastname@rhizome.org

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Peter Rojas, Chairman
Fred Benenson, Vice Chair
John Borthwick
Lauren Cornell
Saul Dennison
Sima Familant
Greg Pass
Lisa Phillips
Ron Rosenzweig
Lisa Roumell, Treasurer
Mark Tribe

Support

Support for Rhizome is provided in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Rhizome Staff

Michael Connor

Editor & Curator

Michael Connor first learned about Internet art in 1999 during a conversation in a North Carolina bar with Alex Galloway, who was then editor of Rhizome. As a writer and curator, Connor focuses on the connections among art, technology and the moving image. Prior to joining Rhizome, he worked as Curator at FACT in Liverpool, UK and as Head of Exhibitions at BFI Southbank in London; he has also worked in an independent capacity for organizations including the Australian Center for the Moving Image, TIFF Bell Lightbox and Museum of the Moving Image, among others.

Heather Corcoran

Executive Director

Heather Corcoran comes to Rhizome from Film and Video Umbrella in London where she served as Deputy Director, and was previously Curator at FACT, the UK’s leading center for new media. She has held positions at Interaccess Electronic Media Arts, Toronto, SPACE, London, and has produced large-scale projects with the Barbican Centre, AND Festival and the 2010 Liverpool Biennial, where she was a contributing Curator. Heather holds a BFA from Ryerson University in Toronto, and an MBA from Imperial College, London.

Ben Fino-Radin

Digital Conservator

As Digital Conservator, Ben leads the preservation and curation of the ArtBase, Rhizome's online archive of digital art, which is one of the oldest and most comprehensive collections of its kind. He actively develops and deploys policy and procedure for coping with the obsolescence of technologies employed by works in the collection, keeping Rhizome on the cutting edge of research and development on the preservation of digital materials. Fino-Radin is an archivist, researcher, media archeologist, interested in the preservation of digital culture & ephemera. An artist by training, he received his B.F.A from Alfred University, and currently pursues Masters degrees in Library & Information Science and Digital Art at Pratt Institute.

Scott Meisburger

Senior Developer

As Senior Developer, Scott Meisburger manages and evolves the Rhizome website, co-manages the ArtBase, and serves as an advocate for digital art and digital preservation. As an artist, Scott channels computer science, popular science fiction and the history of technology to explore the border between logical reasoning and ungraspable truths. Scott received a B.A. in Photography from Columbia College Chicago.

Zoë Salditch

Program Director

As Program Director, Zoë Salditch oversees and produces key Rhizome programs and events. She manages the Commissions Program, and The Download, a digital art collecting program she conceived and initiated in 2011. She also coordinates major organization initiatives like Rhizome's Seven on Seven Conference, manages all community aspects of Rhizome's site, and is the liaison for all member affairs, individual and organizational. Beginning in the summer of 2012, she has programed and coordinated Rhizome events including New Silent Series. Previously, Zoë was a volunteer assisting with the new site launch and spearheaded the revision of the ArtBase collection management policy, and came to the organization via the Museum Studies program at Tufts University.

Kristen Wawruck

Development Manager

Kristen Wawruck joined Rhizome’s staff in 2010 to manage all grant fundraising efforts, in addition to supporting membership and board of trustee activities. Kristen is also the Associate Development Director, Grants, at the New Museum. Previously, she was the Manager of Government and Foundation Relations at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, MA, where she also organized “Experiment” live music and art events. From 2006 to 2007, Kristen was the Program Manager for Planning and Development at the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism, and Special Events at Boston City Hall where she facilitated community art projects and handled the department’s grant writing.