05/26/2023
The Board of Directors of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative is pleased to announce the organization’s new Executive Director, Tom Day.
“I am beyond delighted to be coming onboard as Executive Director of The Film-Makers’ Coop,” Day says. “This is an exciting time for the institution, and I cannot wait to begin helping The Coop start the next chapter of its storied history as a cornerstone of experimental film culture in New York and around the globe. In collaboration with the Board of Directors, I will endeavor to continue, and expand upon, The Coop’s dynamic program of screenings and workshops; engage a diverse group of artists, filmmakers and audiences; and grow and care for The Coop’s collections.”
Tom joins The Coop from the academic sector, having spent the last six years teaching and researching in the fields of art history and film studies at The University of Edinburgh and The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. While at The Courtauld, Tom helped to run The Centre for American Art, a field-leading scholarly center, where he programmed lectures, symposia, workshops, screenings, and artists’ events.
Tom completed a PhD in 2019 at The University of Edinburgh with a dissertation on the relationship between Pop art and experimental film since the 1950s. Parts of this work have been revised and are to be published by Edinburgh University Press in a forthcoming anthology Tom has edited with Glyn Davis entitled POP CINEMA. He is also expanding a further part of this research into a book provisionally titled TV GENERATION: ART AND THE POLITICAL IMAGINARY OF TELEVISION ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE.
Tom has several other in-print and forthcoming publications on experimental film, television, and the history of New York’s avant-garde Downtown scene of the 1960s—1990s. This work has profoundly informed Tom’s teaching, which he will continue in New York using The Coop’s collections as a key resource.
As part of Tom’s strategic plan for The Coop, he will aim to revive the scholar-in-residence program to encourage and support academic research into the collection. Tom will also seek to implement focused education and programming initiatives with the ultimate aim of funding a teaching fellowship and a set of curatorial fellowships at The Coop that will support pedagogical programmes and a roster of screenings and publications. An expansion of community-oriented workshops for artists and filmmakers will also be a key priority. One of the central ambitions of Tom’s tenure will be to further assist The Coop in the preservation, digitization, and storage of its world-leading collection of experimental film and video artworks through a rigorous grant-getting program, as well as through collaborations with institutional partners within and beyond New York City.
“I very much look forward to beginning my role this summer, and to lending my efforts to ensure The Coop continues to be a central pillar of the experimental film community and an important institution in New York cultural life," Day adds.
