András Szántó

In 2021, Szántó, working in collaboration with Hans-Ulrich Obrist, helped conceptualize and launch Unfinished Camp, a global network of art organizations seeking to engage the voices of artists in conversations around ethical technology. The same year, he led a team in the design and launch of the Climate Art Awards, in collaboration with Asia Society, National Gallery of Art, The Philipps Collection, the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Environmental Defense Fund.

Much of Szántó’s writing examines arts and cultural institutions, in particular the dynamics of the contemporary art world and art market. His most recent book, The Future of the Museum (2020), features dialogues with 28 art museum directors from around the world, conducted during the Covid pandemic, highlighting the evolving functions of museums in a changing society.

In addition to contributing to the curatorial development of exhibitions and commissions linked to initiatives he had designed and advised, Szántó has organized two survey exhibitions of art of the Hungarian neo-avantgarde: Hungarian Artists of the Sixties and Seventies, at the Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York (2017) and Revisiting Hungarian Art of the 1960s and 1970s, in London (2018). He edited and contributed the lead essay to books tied to each exhibition.

Starting in 2012, Szántó led the development of the Davidoff Art Initiative, supporting art and artists of the Caribbean region. He helped establish residency studios at the Altos de Chavon School in the Dominican Republic and partnerships with residency organizations in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The project relaunched in 2019 as the non-profit Caribbean Art Initiative.

In 2011, Szántó helped relaunch the art program of The Absolut Company, including its Art Bar series (with Nadim Abbas, Los Carpinteros, Mickalene Thomas, Ry Rocklen, Adrian Wong, and others), and served until 2018 as principal advisor to the Absolut Art Bureau. Starting in 2013, Szántó developed an art strategy for Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet and since then has served as the company’s art liaison and member of its Art Advisory Council, advising on projects at the intersection of art, technology, and science by, among others, Theo Jansen, Cao Fei, Ryoji Ikeda, Lars Jan, Robin Meier, Tomás Saraceno, Jan Winderen, Quayola, and Sun Xun. In 2014, Szántó helped conceive the BMW Art Journey, a joint initiative of BMW and Art Basel, which sends artists on journeys of creative discovery worldwide; he serves as the initiative’s strategic advisor and editor of its book series, collaborating closely with the recipients: Astha Butail, Leelee Chan, Jamal Cyrus, Julien Creuzet, Henning Fehr & Philipp Rühr, Zac Landon Pole, Abigail Reyolds, Max Hooper Schneider, and Samson Young. More recently, András Szántó LLC has provided strategic advice to MGM Resorts Arts & Culture in integrating art into hospitality.

His research and writings have explored the strategies, missions, and architecture of art museums, the transformative role of technology, and current debates in cultural policy, including financing and philanthropy, and the rhetoric of cultural advocacy. To gain a better understanding of art-brand collaborations, Szántó initiated the Cultural Citizenship report, based on an online survey of experts. He contributed to the 2010 Aspen Institute report, The Artist as Philanthropist: Strengthening the Next Generation of Artist-endowed Foundations and to the influential 2005 RAND Corporation study, A Portrait of the Visual arts: Meeting the Challenges of a New Era.

Szántó’s writing and policy interests frequently extend to the planning and oversight of symposia and professional forums. He has overseen four sessions of the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since 2008, he has moderated discussions of global museum leaders at Art Basel in Miami Beach, Basel, and Hong Kong, at the Global Art Forum in Dubai, and many other events. He oversaw the 2012 International Art Industry Forum in Vienna, Austria. In 2019, he spearheaded a novel talks-program format for Art Basel Cities in Buenos Aires, Parallel Rooms.

A former Senior Advisor to the Hungarian Minister of Culture and Education, Szántó has been active in the field of cultural diplomacy and international cultural engagement. In 2001, he helped establish the Transatlantic Forum for Cultural Research at UNESCO in Paris. In 2003, he co-organized a Columbia University conference, Arts and Minds: Cultural Diplomacy Amid Global Tensions. In 2012, he moderated a Salzburg Seminar, on Public and Private Cultural Exchange-Based Diplomacy: New Models for the 21st Century. He participated in and wrote the summary reports for two sessions of the Asia Society's US-China Museum Directors Forum in Beijing.

While at Columbia, Szántó published journalism and worked as an analyst at the Media Studies Center, a think-tank. In 1997-2005, he was deputy director and subsequently director of the National Arts Journalism Program (NAJP), in association with Columbia’s schools of Journalism and Arts.

After a youth spent in Budapest and London, Szántó attended the Budapest University of Economics (now Corvinus University). His bachelor's thesis investigated Stalinist-era persecution in Eastern Europe and was published in 1989.

Szántó moved to New York to pursue graduate studies in sociology. At Graduate Center, CUNY, he conducted a study on classical pianists. In 1989, he moved to Columbia University, where, as a Lazarsfeld Fellow, he shifted his focus to the institutions of the visual art world. He regularly published journalism and worked as an analyst at the Media Studies Center, a think-tank. His 1996 Ph.D. dissertation, Gallery Transformations in the New York Art World in the 1980's, is a sociological analysis of the institutional dynamics of art.

Szántó has also published widely on politics, history, and public affairs. While in college in Budapest, he researched the then-taboo topic of forced resettlements in Stalinist Hungary, published as a book in 1989. In New York, he served as a correspondent for Magyar Narancs, the first Hungarian alternative weekly. In 2007, he organized a conference on propaganda at the New York Public Library, funded by George Soros, and edited the companion book of essays titled What Orwell Didn’t Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics.

András Szántó (born January 1, 1964) advises museums, foundations, educational institutions, and leading brands worldwide on cultural strategy. He has directed the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University and has overseen the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.