Brett Littman / Shakkei Consulting
Bio
30+ years of experience leading and financially strengthening museums, cultural institutions and galleries, with a proven track record driving fundraising, capital projects, entrepreneurial initiatives, board evolution, and exhibitions and programs that engage diverse artists, patrons and audiences.
Brett Littman is the Director of Shakkei Consulting (“borrowed landscape” in Japanese) a consulting firm that develops organizational specific strategy and solutions to complex curatorial, management, programmatic, operational, entrepreneurial and legacy issues.
He was the Senior Director, US of Carpenters Workshop Gallery from 2024 - 2025; Director of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum in Long Island City, New York from 2018 – 2023; Executive Director of The Drawing Center from 2007–2018; Deputy Director of MoMA PS1 from 2003–2007; Co-Director of Dieu Donné Papermill from 2001–2003 and Associate Director of Urban Glass from 1996–2001.
Littman’s interests are multidisciplinary and he has curated more than thirty-five exhibitions focusing on visual art, outsider art, craft, design, architecture, poetry, music, science, and literature. He was named the curator of Frieze Sculpture at Rockefeller Center for 2019 and 2020. He is also an art critic, lecturer, active essayist for museum and gallery catalogues, and writes for a wide range of US and international art, fashion, and design magazines.
A native New Yorker, Brett Littman received a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from France and his B.A. in Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego.
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Awards and Grants
- Grant from the Danish Cultural Foundation to visit artists and designers in Copenhagen, 2019
- Awarded Chevalier of The Order of Arts and Letters, French Government, 2018
- Residency at Villa Kujoyama, Kyoto, Japan, 2018
- Grant from the Phileas Foundation, Austria, Curatorial Research and Artist Studio visits in Vienna, 2017
- Grant from the Saat Saath Foundation, India for Curatorial Research and Artist Studio visits in New Delhi and Mumbai, 2016
- Grant from the French Embassy, France for Curatorial Research and Artist Studio visits in Paris, 2009
- Grant from the Esteban Lisa Foundation, Argentina, to present a series of lectures and workshops in Buenos Aires, 2008
- Grant from Parque Lage in Brazil, to present lecture, workshops, and student critiques at the school in Rio de Janeiro, 2008
- Grant from Iaspis Craft in Dialogue, Sweden to lecture and continue research on contemporary art and design in Sweden, 2004
- Grant from Finnish and Swedish Consul General’s Offices to research contemporary art and design in Stockholm and Helsinki, 2002
- Grant from American Scandinavian Foundation, US, to present 20 lectures in Sweden, 1999