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Philippa Polskin

Philippa Polskin
President, Arts & Communications

Philippa Polskin joined Ruder Finn Arts & Communications Counselors in 1981, and was appointed President in 1992. Founded in 1959, Ruder Finn Arts & Communications Counselors is the oldest and largest agency providing cultural marketing, strategic planning, public relations, sponsorship and management consulting services to institutions, corporations and foundations. Ms. Polskin oversees a staff of 24 communications executives in offices in New York and Los Angeles, as well as a network of exclusive affiliates in specialized cultural agencies in London, Paris and Japan.

Ms. Polskin has designed cultural marketing programs for many corporations including Target Corporation, Robert Mondavi Winery, Nokia, Inc., Hunter-Douglas, Christie's, Seagram Americas, Novartis and Condéast. She advises many corporations on sponsorship strategies and the marketing of their sponsored projects. Additional corporate clients have included: Avon, Cartier, Time Warner, AT&T, PaineWebber, Whirlpool Corporation, Kohler Co., Maidenform Inc., Cantor Fitzgerald, Warner-Lambert, United Airlines, American Express, Chase Manhattan Bank and Springs Industries, among others.

In addition to her corporate communications work, Ms. Polskin also creates and manages campaigns for a variety of international and U.S.-based cultural institutions in the areas of sponsorship, marketing, communications, special events and crisis management. These include: The Museum of Modern Art in New York; London's Tate Modern and Tate Britain; The J. Paul Getty Trust and the Getty Center in Los Angeles; Walt Disney Concert Hall also in Los Angeles; the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain; the Miho Museum, Shigaraki, Japan; the Mori Art Center in Tokyo; the Newseum in Washington, DC; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC; Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Japan; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; the Columbus Museum of Art; the Hakone Museum, Japan; Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland (for the International Olympic Committee); and the Center for International Contemporary Art, New York.

Ms. Polskin has managed and implemented public relations and outreach campaigns for more than 100 corporate-sponsored cultural events, including the international tours of the exhibitions: Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective; China, 5,000 Years; Jasper Johns: A Retrospective; Richard Diebenkorn; Abstraction in the Twentieth Century: Total Risk, Freedom, Discipline; Picasso and the Weeping Women: The Years of Marie Theresa Walter & Dora Mar; Hospice: A Photographic Inquiry; Alfred Stieglitz at Lake George; Nadar; Manet to Gaugin: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings from Swiss Private Collections; Gustave Caillebotte: Urban Impressionist; Henri Cartier-Bresson: Hommage; Hollywood: Legend and Reality; Henry Moore: 60 Years of His Art; Photography Until Now; El Greco of Toledo: An International Exhibition; and Sketchbooks of Picasso. Through these projects, Ms. Polskin has worked closely with many leading institutions throughout the world.

In addition to providing public relations and promotional counsel, Ms. Polskin has also assisted institutions with the organization and circulation of major traveling exhibitions, providing expertise in the areas of concept development, project management, booking, contracts, catalogue production, merchandising, insurance, shipping and installation design.

Ms. Polskin has also advised foundations on their arts support programs, including the Ford Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts and the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, among others. In addition, Ms. Polskin works with a number of on-line cultural marketplaces.

Prior to joining Ruder Finn Arts & Communications Counselors, Ms. Polskin worked in fundraising, development and media relations at the Toronto Festival of Festivals and as a production manager for Simcom Inc., a Toronto-based film production company.

Ms. Polskin is married with two children and resides in New York.

 

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