Through my non-profit, Pacific Sound and Vision, I am involved in a major archival project with the Wende Museum (Los Angeles), specifically the creation of a unique - and huge - database of recordings from two geographic and cultural spheres. These are East “Slavdom” (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus) and the Baltic nations (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania).
The mission of the Wende Museum is to preserve Cold War art, culture, and history from the Soviet Bloc countries, inspire a broad understanding of the period, and explore its enduring legacy. Named for the Wende (pronounced “venda”), a German word meaning “turning point” or “change” that has come to describe the transformative period leading up to and following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Wende Museum:
• collects and preserves artwork, artifacts, archives, films, and personal histories from Cold War–era Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union relating to the period 1945–1991;
• challenges and engages the public through experimental exhibitions and interdisciplinary programming inspired by the collection;
• illuminates the past and informs the present through creative collaborations with contemporary artists and designers; and
• promotes rigorous scholarship, educates students, and stimulates general interest through lectures, symposia, and publications.
The Museum’s location in Culver City, California, provides independence and critical distance from current political debates in Europe, and also facilitates the questioning of preconceived ideas about our past and present. Moreover, the Museum’s physical remoteness from Central and Eastern Europe has enabled it to attract significant artifacts and collections that might otherwise have been destroyed as a result of emotional and political reactions.
Blockchain work continues on a distributed platform. This will help to protect the copyright of Russian authors and artists, using a track-and-trace system that can also aid the licensing and monetizing of media assets that are usually stolen and/or pirated.
I am currently the Wende’s Curator of Music. On occasion I am asked to compile playlists for events and/or functions. Here are a few, both long and short…
Soviet and Post-Soviet Women Artists
