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THE FILM
Out of the Picture is a feature-length film about art critics living through a period of transformation for both art and media. Not only has the art world changed, with long lines for Instagrammable art shows, a worldwide proliferation of biennials, mind-boggling art market records and hashtag-driven discourses. Art’s place in the world has changed, too.
Today, the once-rare tools of the artist are a swipe or a click away. The planet at large is generating visual culture on a scale that is hard to fathom.
All of this change makes the job of discerning what’s genuinely artful, what’s worthy of our collective attention—the pathfinding role of critics—as essential and challenging as it’s ever been.
For years, our team has followed a handful of writers who have made it their life’s work to translate the experiences of art for others. We followed Jen Graves through the underground art scene in Seattle and Carolina Miranda to a mountain top “dashboard Jesus.” We witnessed Jenee Osterheldt experience artful acts of memory at the intersection where George Floyd was killed, and we were there when Hrag Vartanian invented the term “blogazine” for his then fledgling website, Hyperallergic.
Criticism has been remade while our cameras rolled. In this critical time—when beliefs about kids in cages can be formed at museums and monuments—some of these critics have risen to become essential voices for their generation while others have become marginalized, obsolete even.
While there have been countless films made about artists, Out of the Picture is the first documentary film to be made about art critics in the United States.
While ostensibly about an esoteric subject—the American art critic—our film is also about something everyone can relate to: change. Out of the Picture is poised to prompt a national conversation about the nature of art, modern life and how meaning gets made in the 21st century.
Our impact
Out of the Picture premiered earlier this year, has been accepted into several festivals around the world and has received two jury awards. It received a standing ovation at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, during a special preview screening.
“It’s a beautiful film. It’s an amazing film”
“This documentary is going to change the way we look at criticism.”
“Who among us is not a critic? That’s part of being alive - is reacting to things.”
Some of the best reactions to our film come from the next generation of art critics, and we hope to prioritize screening venues that include them and provoke conversations, including in museums, galleries, art schools, journalism schools and community based settings.
Recent PRESS
Steve Pond, awards editor at The Wrap, interviews director Mary Louise Schumacher
Milwaukee Magazine: This Documentary Is Going to Change the Way We Look at Art Criticism
Artful Jaunts: Mary Louise Schumacher on Her Coast-to-Coast Look at Art Critics in America
Artdose Magazine: Film About Art Critics Explores Radical Change to Art and Media
Creative MKE podcast: “Out of the Picture” with Mary Louise Schumacher
SCREENINGS
Cranbrook Academy of Art – March 20, 2025 – Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Colby College Museum of Art/Maine Film Center – March 10, 2025 – Waterville, Maine
Rhode Island School of Design – March 6, 2025 – Providence, R.I.
Savannah College of Art and Design – Feb. 24, 2025 – Atlanta
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago – Feb. 22, 2025 – Chicago
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum/Grand Theater – Feb. 19, 2025 – Wausau, Wis.
Cleveland Institute of Art – Jan. 26, 2025 – Cleveland, Ohio
Portland Museum of Art – Jan. 10, 2025 – Portland, Maine
Frye Art Museum – Dec. 12 – Seattle, Wash.
Studio Arts College International – November 2024 – Florence, Italy
On Art Film Festival – October 2024 – Warsaw, Poland; online November 2024
GlobeDocs – October 2024 – Coolidge Corner Theater, Brookline, Mass.
Yale University – October 2024 – New Haven, Conn.
AmFest – 2024-2026 – various cities throughout eastern Europe
Madrid International Film Festival – September 2024 – Madrid, Spain
Out of the Suitcase Exhibition – August 2024 – Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Milwaukee, Wis.
Fine Arts Film Festival – June 2024 – Venice, Calif.
Colorado State University – May 2024 – Fort Collins, Colo.
Tokyo International Cinema Awards – April 2024 — Tokyo, Japan
Milwaukee Film Festival – April 2024 – Avalon Theater – Milwaukee, Wis.
Wisconsin Film Festival – April 2024 – Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wis.
Notre Dame University – April 2024 – Notre Dame, Ind.
Master of Art Film Festival – February 2024 – Odeon Theater - Sofia, Bulgaria
“Our idea of art and what art should be has changed. It’s not seen through such an elite lens...or as much of a secret society as it used to be. Everyone’s getting a say.”
Our Research
Out of the Picture is fundamentally about the human stories of individuals who’ve made it their life’s work to translate art experiences for everyday humans, but it is a project also rooted in real scholarship.
While the 2017 Arts & Culture Fellow with the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, Mary Louise Schumacher set out to learn about the priorities and pressures of today’s art critics. She put together a team, including humanities experts, and conducted a comprehensive survey of arts journalists today. The survey received responses from 327 subjects from across the United States, in 38 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Many of the survey’s questions replicated those of a seminal study done 15 years prior by the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, under the leadership of András Szántó, who was an adviser to our survey and the documentary film. The existence of that earlier study provided an almost unprecedented opportunity for comparison over a period of upheaval to both art and media.
This research brings essential context and weight to the stories we’re telling. The topline takeaways of the survey have been published in a series of articles by Schumacher for Nieman Reports, a quarterly print magazine covering thought leadership in journalism and published by Harvard University. The survey’s findings were also the subject of a special ARTnews column by Schumacher, and a lecture by her at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art (video below). It was also referenced in an important New York Times op-ed calling for more critics of color and written by Elizabeth Mendez Berry and Chi-hui Yang, of Critical Minded.
Our Team
As a team from the Midwest, Los Angeles, New York and London, we have both the vantage point of outsiders, working beyond the art world’s systems and influences, but also of insiders with enough credentials and connections to secure access to the most critical voices on art today. As our team grows in its final phases of production and post-production, we are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team.
Mary Louise Schumacher
Mary Louise Schumacher (director) is a journalist, critic and filmmaker based in Portland, Maine. She is the Executive Director of the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, known for giving a prize for excellence in arts journalism to writers each year. She was the longtime art and architecture critic for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, was the the 2019 Clarice Smith Distinguished Critic at the Smithsonian, and the 2017 Arts & Culture Fellow with the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, where she spent a year studying documentary film, among other things. Her bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, ARTnews, Hyperallergic, Nieman Reports and Milwaukee Magazine. Out of the Picture is her first film.
Johnathon OlsEn
Johnathon Olsen (editor) is a film editor based in Milwaukee. He worked closely and collaboratively with Mary Louise to help the film find its voice. Olsen is also the director of the 2024 feature film Corridor, an ensemble caper set on a snowy evening in Milwaukee, and waltz, which premiered at the Wisconsin Film Festival in 2009. He is an experienced commercial editor who has worked for companies such as The New York Times, the United Way, Harley-Davidson and many others. He also once managed an art house cinema in Duluth.
Naomi Waxman
Naomi Waxman (coordinating producer, archival researcher) is an award-winning journalist and a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where she received a master’s degree in journalism. Her work has recently been recognized by the Milwaukee Press Club and the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
Katie Avila Loughmiller
Katie Avila Loughmiller (coordinating producer) is an interdisciplinary, social-practice artist, writer, educator, curator and activist. She is the co-founder and director of LUNA (Latinas Unidas en las Artes), an arts business that supports Latinx artists. She is also a founding member of Heard Space, a multimedia performing arts collective led by women of color, and Milwaukee Action Intersection, a social justice organization rooted in healing, engagement, resource sharing and education. Avila Loughmiller currently teaches in the theatre department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is the storytelling and content creator for Colorful Connections, a diversity, equity and inclusion firm. She also co-hosts a biweekly comedy radio show/podcast called We Heard We Were Funny that airs live on Riverwest Radio.
erin richards
Erin Richards (producer) is the director of strategic partnerships and newsroom development at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where she previously had worked for more than a decade as a reporter and editor. While at the Journal Sentinel, she and Mary Louise developed live journalism events around the arts, architecture and economic development. Erin was often out front, moderating these public events.
Cindy Eggert Johnson
Cindy Eggert-Johnson (audience development specialist, co-producer, assistant editor, camera) is a director, editor and writer. Her first short film, "Homecoming," screened at the 2020 Milwaukee Film Festival. She is the owner and creative director of Johnson & Johnson Creative Content and Sweet Pea Cinema and a former media executive who has worked on Pulitzer Prize-winning projects. She also operates a flower farm in Wisconsin’s Driftless Region.
Portia Cobb
Portia Cobb (humanities expert, story consultant) is a video artist and producer of short experimental documentary films whose videos and installations have been exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work often investigates the politics of place and identity. She is an associate professor of film at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Mark Escribano
Mark Escribano (cinematographer) is an artist, photographer and media producer with more than 20 years of experience working in documentary film, public art and performance. He has directed several art-related films, including The Super Noble Brothers and Civic Art, and served as cinematographer on William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet and festival darling Modus Operandi.
Jacki huntington
Jacki Huntington (camera) is a journalist, director, editor and cinematographer. She previously worked as a producer for Refinery29, where she piloted the unapologetically feminist, body-positive video content that continues to influence the brand's video aesthetic.
dana shihadah
Dana Shihadah (camera) is a Palestinian-American cinematographer whose work covers a wide range of documentary and narrative films including Pet Names, which premiered at SXSW and was named among the 10 Best Films of the 2018 festival by The Hollywood Reporter. She brings an intimate and intuitive shooting style to our project.
xavier cousens
Xavier Cousens (camera) is a filmmaker and journalist based in New York City. He has worked on projects such as The Great Hack (Netflix) and The Vow (HBO). His short documentary Hustle has screened at the Woods Hole and Buffalo International film festivals.
Rohan Ali
Rohan Ali (camera) is a documentary filmmaker and and co-owner of Forstora Media, a digital production company that produces music videos, documentaries and promotional videos for DJs around the world. His work explores modern culture with a focus on political, social and environmental change. He has worked with clients such as Corona, FYF Music Festival, Low End Theory, Stones Throw Records and others. He is currently at work on his first documentary feature, shot in Japan.
Émilie Martel
Émilie Martel (camera) spent years producing, filming and directing short web content and institutional videos for organizations worldwide, such as The Guardian, the New York Post and Univision. Her short films have screened at festivals worldwide including Amdocs 2019 in California, VIFF 2019 in Vancouver and Línea Imaginaria in Madrid. She is a recipient of Hot Docs Crosscurrent Funds, received the 2018 Canadian Women Artists’ Award from NYSCA and was a beneficiary of the Banff Diversity of Voices Initiative 2018 and 2019.
Nick Lujero
Nick Lujero (web designer) is a Milwaukee-based art director. He previously worked at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as a designer, where he was a part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. His work has been recognized by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University as well as the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
BETTY BLEXRUD-STRIGEN
Betty Blexrud-Strigens is a multifaceted musician, artist, and ad worker based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a creative director, she has helped develop the look and sound of community action organizations such as Common Ground, the Battle for Democracy Fund and The Just Power Alliance. Her work includes creating content for national brands including copywriting, video direction, audio production and color theory. In her spare time she is a singer/songwriter in the band Testa Rosa and lends her voice to numerous projects throughout the year.
NICK BERG
Nick Berg is a composer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Milwaukee. He has written music for national brands and commercials. He has more than 30 years of experience performing in bands and as a solo artist. He is current studying to become a music therapist.
Katie Heil
Katie Heil (executive producer), is a philanthropist and native Milwaukeean who has worked on behalf of the arts for more than 40 years. She is a member of Milwaukee Film’s board of directors and is president of the Heil Family Foundation. She prefers to work behind the scenes and believes culture can create positive change.
Andrew Swant
Andrew Swant (producer) is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has screened at Hot Docs, SXSW, AFI, IFC and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and has been distributed through Epix (Paramount/Lionsgate/MGM), IFC Films and Kino Lorber on platforms such as Netflix, Sundance Now, Amazon and Hulu. His work has been covered by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Vice and Variety. He recently directed Bon Iver: Autumn and co-produced Give me Liberty (Sundance 2019, Cannes, MoMA). He has edited several films, including Civic Art, 30 Seconds Away and Chasing Bubbles.
András Szántó
András Szántó (humanities expert) was the director of the National Arts Journalism Program and the National Endowment for the Arts Journalism Institute at Columbia University. He has consulted on art-related programming for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Aspen Institute, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, UNESCO and countless other organizations.
Dr. Charlotte Frost
Dr. Charlotte Frost (humanities expert, advising producer) is a leading authority on the changing landscape of visual culture in the digital era and on the history of networked art forms. She is the author of Art Criticism Online: A History, the first book to detail the nearly 40-year history of online arts communities and discourses, as well as countless essays, videos and podcasts on art and technology. Frost is also the executive director of Furtherfield Gallery in London, internationally known as a center for experimentation in networked art making and dialogue. She has been an adviser to the film, the survey and is especially poised to help our team create novel forms of distribution for Out of the Picture.
THANK YOU
Out of the Picture has been supported, in part, by the Heil Family Foundation; a grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Council, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Greater Milwaukee Foundation; JustFilms of the Ford Foundation; the Brico Forward Fund; the Herzfeld Foundation; the Brico Covid Emergency Relief Fund, the No Studios/Gener8tor Fellowship; the Astor Street Foundation; the Rabkin Foundation; and many individual donors.
Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of our supporters. The project is produced by Artspeak Media LLC.
Contact
Press and other inquiries HERE