Hampshire Mourns Longtime Former Professor and Feminist Film Pioneer Joan Braderman

Braderman, born and raised in Washington, D.C., graduated from Radcliffe College in 1970. While a graduate student in cinema studies at New York University and a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts, she developed keen interests in the women’s liberation movement, the antiwar movement, and the fight for community empowerment by Black and Puerto Rican residents of New York.

In 1975, she became a founding member of the art collective Heresies, whose regular publication featured the work of feminist artists, critics, and editors. It would later become the basis for her crowning artistic achievement, THE HERETICS, a retrospective film that premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in 2009. With a singular mix of political insight and visual invention, the film brings into sharp relief the ways that the exceptional energy of the Heresies Collective succeeded in challenging the exclusionary practices and norms of the art world.

Braderman was a pioneer in the medium of video art. Standing out among her earlier works is the groundbreaking video Joan Does Dynasty (1986), in which she performed her signature “stand up theory” and introduced the concept of political performance to the growing body of feminist art and criticism. Her work is in the permanent collections of a number of museums, among them Stedelijk, in Amsterdam; the Centre Pompidou, in Paris; and New York City’s Museum of Modern Art.

In 1985, Braderman joined the faculty of Hampshire College, where she inspired countless students to explore the intersections of art, media, and activism. Professor of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan and former Hampshire colleague Susan Douglas wrote, “When Joan came to Hampshire, she completely reenergized the video production program. Of course she taught students the technical skills they needed, but more importantly she urged them to take risks, to break out of existing production conventions to make new, pathbreaking work. Her pioneering videos were powerful inspirations to them, and to me. Funny, brilliant, and always pushing artistic boundaries, Joan transformed the lives and work of her students, colleagues, and friends.”

“Joan showed me by example how to navigate the world, the professional worlds of art and technology as an eyes wide open woman, a feminist and social justice activist.”Dana Masters 85F

Over the years, she cultivated student partnerships in her own artistic production. Her devotion to her students was matched by theirs to her. Former student and collaborator Dana Master 85F wrote, “I can’t quite find the words yet to express the loss and the gratitude I feel for having shared so many personal and professional experiences with her since the late 1980s, at Hampshire College, first my professor, then academic advisor, then she asked me to be her TA, and later her studio assistant, assistant director, and co-director. Joan showed me by example how to navigate the world, the professional worlds of art and technology as an eyes wide open woman, a feminist and social justice activist.”

Another former student and collaborator, Crescent Diamond 95F, remembered, “As her student, I think what was so fundamentally encouraging was that she took my work, and that of my classmates, very seriously. She expected that we would be as dedicated to our art and studies as she was, and that, in turn, made me take myself seriously as an artist. Joan shaped my worldview in a way that no one else could — through her outrageous brilliance and fierce spirit. . . . Although she was quite ill for many years, she continued to have so much curiosity and creativity inside. As I sat next to her in her last weeks she said, ‘There’s still so much I want to learn.’”

Despite her long struggles with chronic illnesses, Braderman was always determined to find ways to enjoy life. She was passionate about her friendships and her cats. She loved to sit on the beach and swim in the ocean. She traveled widely and with an unbridled sense of adventure. With her partner, Bob Reckman, she created a life that others wanted to join.

Banner image courtesy of Bob Reckman, black and white photo courtesy of Hampshire College Archives