Foundation for Artist Catalogues Announces Technology Platform, Non-Profit Model for Digital Catalogues Raisonnés Stewardship

BEACON, NY — The Foundation for Artist Catalogues introduced its Artifact platform to the catalogue raisonné community on April 1. The move integrates a beloved and respected technology platform into a new mission-driven nonprofit model focused on cultural preservation.

After sixteen years of serving the art community, the catalogue raisonné platform and web development company panOpticon ceased operations March 31. As part of its wind-down, the catalogues raisonnés hosted on its platform were transferred to the stewardship of the Foundation for Artist Catalogues.

The Foundation for Artist Catalogues is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in New York, founded in 2025 under the direction of Dean Lentz, long-time provider of IT solutions to galleries, artists, museums, and artist foundations. Joined by Susannah Shepherd, co-founder and tech lead for panOpticon, the organization is developing Artifact with new features, new users, and new catalogues over the coming year. Its founding directors also include Bill Braine, a marketer and veteran of Sotheby’s New York returning to the arts after more than a decade in financial services.

At launch the Foundation hosts over ninety catalogues representing artists across fourteen countries and five continents.

The group has aims beyond the technology. Its mission is to safeguard artistic legacies by providing a platform for creating and stewarding enduring digital catalogues that facilitate scholarship, cultural preservation, and public engagement with artist’s works and histories. In practice, that means long-term funding and technological resilience.

Lentz commented “The catalogue raisonné is one of art history’s most essential instruments. With its evolution into born-digital formats, preservation becomes vital. The Foundation is geared to help ensure these scholarly works survive and adapt.”

The Foundation offers the Artifact platform, which authors, scholars, and cataloguers use to produce born-digital catalogues raisonnés. In addition, the Foundation offers web development services to publish bespoke websites that meet the unique needs of each artist’s legacy. Completed catalogues feature a wealth of knowledge, citing exhibition history, provenance, and published literature. Artist catalogues are an invaluable resource to other art historians, curators, collectors, gallerists, private dealers, law enforcement, and auction houses.

Shepherd explains “we recognized that accepted standards would be essential, so we’ve built in best practices that work across every geography and system.” Artifact is a feature-rich scholarly tool; in addition to basic cataloguing it allows for documentation of multiples and editions, correspondence history, and related archival material.

For longevity, the nonprofit will also seek to broaden its stakeholders. Braine noted “we’re incredibly gratified that the community has embraced this transition. Almost every panOpticon customer joined us, ensuring the continued stewardship of the deep scholarship and patient work of experts across artistic disciplines and eras. We’re going to build on that support, partnering with and empowering artists, scholars, collectors, and institutions who value our mission.”