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Board of Directors:

Shiben Banerji
Shiben Banerji studied architecture and history at Columbia University. He has subsequently worked for architecture, planning and conservation firms in New York and Bombay. He has designed exhibit panels on Bombay for the "Cities - Corners" exhibition being held at the International Conventional Center of Barcelona from May through September of this year. Shiben has assisted with the development of numerous 1687 productions, and his interest in historiography particularly shaped previous presentations of "We Are Not Your Monkeys" and "Defining Violence / Justifying Torture." Shiben is currently interested in the use of research on the built environment and new media as tools for public education.

I was invited to join the 1687, Inc. board in December 2001, and I accepted
believing that this organization, more than any other, created intellectual
space for modern artists. I still believe this.
1687 is unlike most other US based arts organizations in at least three
ways:
First, though not restricted to any one art form, its work is clearly
anchored in modern music. This has meant that Lenore Von Stein brings
different media together as elements of a composition.

Second, the work produced by 1687 is very carefully theorized. Expression
is constantly being developed to think through the intricate, if not
difficult, relationship between idea and emotion.

Third, 1687 is unafraid. This is clear from its engagement with multiple
artistic traditions and the politics of representation.

Trained as an architect, I am always fascinated by the variances in scale
within a single composition and across the company's repertoire. The music
reads coherently, and different elements of composition are juxtaposed
without unnecessary awkwardness.

An area of 1687's operations that I have given a lot thought to is the kind
of concert venues that we should use. In other words, I like to think of an
event as a site specific installation rather than a recital looking for
symphonic space. I have also been concerned with bringing more critical
attention to Lenore Von Stein's work.

Marc Mannheimer
Marc Mannheimer's Resume

Lenore Von Stein

Founder and artistic director of 1687,Inc.

The collage techniques I'm developing at 1687 evolved out of my work with established forms e.g. play form, story, nightclub, sonata and concert forms, composing group shows, etc. These ways of investigating sensations and perspectives, deciphering cause and effect and truths behind the truths were enriching but limiting. They were someone else's.

For awhile I was calling these collages "living paintings" because they allow me the freedom I associate with abstract painting and because this current work is influenced by ballet and modern dance, and the startling works of Robert Wilson and his use of tableaux vivant.

1687 also offers artists and scholars a platform for their work and ideas. We choose artists and scholars - give them a theme, budget and a time limit for their presentations. Their work is not circumscribed in any other way.1687 gives a core group of players and myself an avenue for developing training and rehearsal procedures as well as educational cirriculum and projects.

Our goal is to make 1687, Inc. a transparent organization. To that end we have established an art and business log on this site to chronicle the evolution of ideas and initiatives that are enacted as well as those unrealized, with their successes and failures, ethical concerns and dilemmas. The log also follows collisions and/or synergy between the goals and priorities important to making an expressive piece of art and those of raising money and marketing that work and the organization as a whole.

I have a master's in music composition from the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. I've taught at several colleges including Berkeley College, NYC, College of Aeronautics, John Jay College, CUNY and Touro College. I currently work as a fundraiser for other organizations as well as 1687,Inc.

Staff:

Under Construction