Muse Film And Television

Karl Katz, Executive Director/President
In 1953, shortly after graduating from Columbia University's Department of Fine Arts and Archaeology, Karl Katz began his career with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1955, Katz was made Fellow at The American Schools of Oriental Research and spent the next two years studying traveling and excavating in Israel, Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, and Iran. Katz has spent more than 40 years as a museum director and conceptualist. In 1958, he was invited to co-head the team that created Israel's National Museum of Art and Archaeology in Jerusalem--the largest general art museum outside North America and Europe.

In 1971, Katz rejoined the staff of The Metropolitan Museum of Art as Chairman for Special Projects, and subsequently Chairman for Exhibitions and Loans. In these capacities, Katz helped create the major exhibition program of the MMA which has led to a significant increase in museum attendance and become a worldwide standard in art museums. During his tenure, Katz founded the Office of Film and Television at the MMA in 1980 with the goal of using television to reach new audiences for the museum and to contextualize art. Since then, OFTV has produced nearly fifty films, making the MMA foremost among museums worldwide which produce films on art. In 1984, he also assumed the role of Executive Director of The Metropolitan's joint venture with the J. Paul Getty Trust, the Program for Art on Film. The program has created the largest database in the world of films on art and produced 15 experimental films.

Over the past 40 years, Katz's involvement as a museum director and conceptualist and exhibition planner has brought him worldwide recognition. He has developed the concepts for a number of innovative museums, including: The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, The Museum of the Jewish Diaspora in Tel-Aviv, the Museum of the History of Jerusalem in the Tower of David, the P.T. Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, The Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Copenhagen, and recently KIASMA, The Museum of the Twentieth Century in Helsinki. He continues to be on the planning team for a number of Art and Archaeology projects.

In 1991, Katz founded MUSE Film and Television, a not-for-profit public company which creates original, educational/entertaining arts programs for audiences of all ages through the creative use of film, video and new technologies.

Since 1971, Katz has headed his own museum conceptualist company Katzalyst which creates museums, exhibitions, and art related projects.

In 1980, Katz was honored as Humanitarian of the Year by the AMIT Organization, and in 1982 he was made a Knight of the Order of Dannebrog, First Class by the Government of Denmark. In 1991, he was elected Fellow of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Among his many professional affiliations, Mr. Katz served as the First Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the International Center of Photography in New York. He has also served on the Board of Trustees of the Municipal Arts Society, New York and the Advisory Committee of the Department of Fine Arts and Archaeology at Columbia University.

Catherine Price, Managing Director/Executive Producer
Catherine Price's experience spans research, marketing, and management of political and philanthropic initiatives. In the late 70s and early 80s, she conducted research for a former United States President on two book projects and was active in two political campaigns at the state and national levels, both in organizing and fundraising roles.

In 1981, Price joined Prescriptives, a division of Estee Lauder, and managed the marketing and staffing of operations in 15 retail stores across four states. In the late 80s, she undertook market research and development for Lessebo, a Swedish paper company, in preparation for the company's expansion into the U.S. market.

Price joined MUSE in 1991, developing co-production and sponsorship relationships for MUSE projects. She also manages all MUSE projects and productions. Production credits include: Cats and Dogs, a two-hour special for Turner Broadcasting (Dogs won an Emmy for best direction); Head, Heart and Hand: Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters, a documentary produced in collaboration with The American Federation of Arts and accompanying the traveling exhibition of Roycroft Arts and Crafts; The Race Is On: The Future of Asia's Past, a news magazine video about the threats to the world's cultural heritage; Tashilham: A Fortunate Journey, a film exploring 39 inter-related paintings by the artist Irving Kriesberg; Chuck Close: A Portrait in Progress, a film about the life and work of portrait painter Chuck Close; and Imagining America: Icons of 20th Century American Art, a two-hour film that presents some of the most important American artists and art in the context of the significant cultural and social transformations that defined the identity and nature of America in the 20th century.