Joan Braderman

Joan Braderman

Northampton, MA - Joan Braderman, a visionary in the world of experimental and feminist video and cinema, died peacefully at her home in Northampton, MA on July 4, 2025. Joan was born and raised in Washington DC. She was the only child of Gene and Betty Braderman and attended the public schools. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1970. After graduation, New York became her North Star, offering possibilities of potent connection between her political commitments and her artistic work. While a graduate student in Cinema Studies at NYU and a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts, Joan developed a keen interest in the women's liberation movement, the anti-war movement, and the fight for community empowerment by the 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 premiering 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. Starting in the 1980's Joan 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 Joan performs her signature "stand up theory" and thereby introduced the concept of political performance to the growing body of feminist art and criticism.

In 1986 Joan joined the faculty of Hampshire College where she continued to strengthen its highly respected Program in Film, Photo and Video. She inspired countless students to explore the intersections of art, media and activism. Over the years, she cultivated student partnerships in her own artistic production. Her devotion to her students was matched by theirs to her. Her teaching, her artistic work and her political activism were marked by an unwavering commitment to challenging power structures on screen and behind the camera. Joan's voice was fearless, funny and radically original.

Despite her long struggles with chronic illnesses, Joan 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. Joan has left her blessed mark on the world by the art she created and the lives she touched.

A celebration of her life will be held in early November. Any memorial donations should be made to the Fisher Home in Amherst.