Professor Nicholas Jenkins: Whichever way you turn, whichever direction you go in, you meet Lincoln Kirstein coming back, whether it's the dance, photography, literature, sculpture, painting, theater, or music.
Curator, Samantha Friedman: For people who do know Lincoln Kirstein at all, he's often most known as the co-founder of the New York City Ballet, which he established with the choreographer George Balanchine in 1948. But he was so much more than that. He's been called the closest thing to a Renaissance man America in the 20th century has had.
Curator, Jodi Hauptman: He was somebody who even as a very young man in his 20s understood what it took to build an institution. He was kind of the ultimate connector and catalyst.
Professor Jenkins: He helped create or did himself create an enormous number of artistic products: institutions, theaters, companies, schools. He was an amazing, inspiring, complicated, noble, difficult, incisive and deeply generous person. .
My name is Nicholas Jenkins. I’m the literary executor of the Lincoln Kirstein papers and copyrights.
Jodi Hauptman: I’m Jodi Hauptman, Senior Curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints.
Samantha Friedman: I'm Samantha Friedman, Associate Curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints
Jodi Hauptman: We're going to be your hosts today for this exhibition.