Running With Scissors: Twisted Preservation

Often running against professional best practice, Franklin Vagnone frames his preservation, public history, and sculptural work within an intimate backdrop of personal experience. Combining both visual and literary fragments, Mr. Vagnone will present ways that he has been able to find a unique voice within the field of Public History and Preservation. His work ranges from miniature, tactile formations of discarded objects, to expansive, conceptual, city-wide public history happenings.

Franklin Vagnone(GSAPP M.Arch ‘93) Principal – TWISTED PRESERVATION: Cultural Consulting, New York City, and President/CEO of Old Salem Inc. Winston-Salem, NC, is a Public Historian, and sculptor who has been labeled a “domestic-archeo-anthropologist”. He leads the highly respected international cultural consulting firm: Twisted Preservation, facilitates the series “One Night Stand” overnights in historic house museums, and “Water Cooler Chats”, which to date, has readers in over 85 countries. (twistedpreservation.wordpress.com) (franklinvagnone.org).

Frank is author of numerous articles as well as co-authored The Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums (with Ms. Deborah Ryan) – a controversial book about preservation and historic cultural sites. The book, now in its 7th printing since 2016, was voted best Museum Education-related book of 2015 by Museum Educator’s Monitor, and became #1 bestseller (Museum-related) on Amazon for February 2016.

His work has been recognized through numerous awards, and most recently Franklin was selected for the 2015 Museum Association of New York State’s prestigious Individual Achievement Award.