Justinian (Justin) Jampol

Last updated
Justinian Jampol
Born1978 (age 4647)
Los Angeles, California, United States
EducationUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Oxford University
Occupation(s)Founder and Executive Director of the Wende Museum of the Cold War
SpouseFilomena Lovin

Justinian (Justin) Jampol is the founder and current executive director of The Wende Museum, an art museum, cultural center, and archive in Culver City, California. [1] His work focuses on visual cultural studies and the connection between contemporary art and Cold War iconography. He also works as a public historian, bringing history to popular culture by hosting TV series such as the Travel Channel's Lost Secrets. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Jampol was born in Los Angeles, California in 1978. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2000 with a B.A. in History. [3] Jampol attended graduate school at Oxford University, where he received a Master of Philosophy in Russian and East European Studies, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Modern History. [4]

Career

In 2002, at the age of 24, Jampol founded The Wende Museum (“Wende” is a German word that means transition or change) while studying visual culture at Oxford University. [5] [6] The museum now holds the largest collection of Cold War–era artifacts and artwork outside of Europe. [7] [8] [9] Initially a collections-focused institution primarily accessed by researchers, under Jampol’s leadership the Wende has transformed into a 21st-century cultural organization that brings together art and history in dynamic community programming for all ages. [10] [11]

In 2009, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Jampol brought ten segments (24 tons) of the original Wall from Germany, and placed them along Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, directly across the street from LACMA. [12] At midnight on November 9, 2009, thousands of Angelenos blocked the street to celebrate the monument, which was painted by notable graffiti artists such as Shepard Fairey, RETNA, Herakut, Thierry Noir, and D*Face. [13]

In 2013, Jampol's contribution to Jeremy Deller's UK Pavilion at the Venice Biennale sparked controversy through its implication of Russian oligarchs in the corrupt process of privatization following the collapse of the USSR. [14] [15] [16] In 2014, further controversy followed with the publication of a New York Times Op-Ed article written by Jampol on the political crisis in Ukraine and the destruction of Soviet statues. [17]

In 2014, Jampol co-curated Competing Utopias at the Neutra VDL House in Silver Lake, California, installing three floors of modernist Eastern Bloc design in the former home of California-based architect Richard Neutra. [18] [19] The show was #3 in Hyperallergic's annual "Top Ten Exhibitions Across the United States." [20]

As executive director of the Wende Museum, Jampol has overseen the museum's relocation in 2017 to a former United States National Guard Armory building in Culver City, [21] [22] and the creation of the Glorya Kaufman Community Center, where the Wende and partner nonprofits offer cultural and educational programs to the community to no cost to participants. [23] [24] The Glorya Kaufman Community Center was named one of the "8 Best New Architecture Projects in L.A. for 2024." [25]

In January 2020, Jampol was appointed as the Los Angeles chapter president of the Heidelberg Club International. He served as chapter president until 2025, and remains on the organization’s board of directors. Jampol is chairman of the board of the A-Mark Foundation, [26] a member of the board of advisors of UCLA’s Luskin Center for History and Policy, [27] and a member of the advisory council of Villa Aurora.

He is a "Notable Alumnus" of UCLA. [28]

Film and TV production

Jampol has produced several films about the Cold War and is a frequent guest on various Travel Channel programs, including Hotel Secrets & Legends (2014) and Mysteries at the Museum (2014). [29]

From 2015 to 2018, he was a guest historian on the Cooking Channel program Food: Fact or Fiction? narrated by Michael McKean. [30]

Jampol was the host and consulting producer of the Travel Channel program Lost Secrets, a six-part series that premiered on November 10, 2019. [31] [32]

He was an executive producer of Red Elvis: The Cold War Cowboy (2022). [33]

Publications

Jampol's writing has been featured in The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Times of London.

In 2014, Jampol published a 904-page encyclopedia of the Wende Museum's East German collection titled Beyond the Wall: Art and Artifacts from the GDR. [34] The book was produced by Benedikt Taschen and published by Taschen Books. [35] It received an overwhelmingly positive review in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. [36] The book was launched on November 9, 2014, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. [37] In 2019, a smaller second edition of the book, The East German Handbook, was published with text in both English and German. [38] [39]

In 2015, Jampol guest-edited a special supplement of The Art Newspaper on Los Angeles art. [40] [41]

Personal life

Jampol is married to actress and Wilhelmina model, Filomena Lovin. His brother-in-law is Australian tennis professional Mark Philippoussis.

References

  1. "History | Wende Museum". www.wendemuseum.org. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  2. "Lost Secrets : Programs : Travel Channel : Discovery Press Web". press.discovery.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  3. "UCLA Alumni: JUSTINIAN JAMPOL '00". 2015.
  4. Petrou, Michael (2013-01-30). "A Cold War story told through 70,000 artifacts". Maclean's.
  5. "Graham Foundation > Grantees > The Wende Museum of the Cold War". grahamfoundation.org. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  6. Engerman, David (2011-06-01). "California's Cold War Museum". Humanities.
  7. "About the Wende". Wende Museum. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  8. admin (2021-05-05). "The Wende Museum". Artillery Magazine. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  9. McManis, Sam (2014-05-11). "Discoveries: Wende Museum preserves artifacts from Cold War". The Sacramento Bee.
  10. Gordon, Eric A. (2017-11-21). "Growth and change for the Wende Museum of the Cold War". People's World. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  11. "A turning point for Wende Museum of the Cold War". KCRW. 2017-11-21. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  12. You, Tracy (2014-10-03). "Where's the Berlin Wall now? 10 surprising locations". CNN.
  13. Haithman, Diane (2009-08-12). "Berlin Wall's fall will be memorialized across Wilshire".
  14. "2013 Jeremy Deller | British Council". venicebiennale.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  15. Higgins, Charlotte (2013-05-28). "Jeremy Deller shows a 'wistfully aggressive' Britain at Venice Biennale". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  16. Observer, Culver City. "Wende Museum Collection Stirs Controversy". Culver City Observer. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  17. Jampol, Justinian (2014-03-03). "Smashing Lenin Won't Save Ukraine".
  18. "Neutra VDL — Competing Utopias". VDL. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  19. "Competing Utopias". Wende Museum. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  20. "Best of 2014: Our Top 10 Exhibitions Across the United States". 2014.
  21. "The Cold War as a museum: At the Wende, one man's 100,000-piece collection finds a new home". Los Angeles Times. 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  22. "A turning point for Wende Museum of the Cold War". KCRW. 2017-11-22. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  23. Prevendar, Amanda (2021-12-14). "New Project: Wende Museum Creative Community Center and Housing". AUX Architecture. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  24. Sharp, Steven (2022-07-14). "Glorya Kaufman Creative Community Center breaks ground at Culver City's Wende Museum | Urbanize LA". la.urbanize.city. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  25. Subscribers, Sam Lubell For (2024-12-01). "The 8 best new architecture projects in L.A. for 2024". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  26. "About Us". A-Mark Foundation. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  27. "Board of Advisors". UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  28. Staff writer. "The Wall is Still Tumbling Down." UCLA Magazine (2015). Archived from the original.
  29. "Justin Jampol". IMDb. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  30. "IMDB - Justinian Jampol". 2015.
  31. "Lost Secrets : Programs : Travel Channel : Discovery Press Web". press.discovery.com. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  32. "Travel Channel Unearths History's 'Lost Secrets' With Founder of L.A.'s Wende Museum (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  33. Red Elvis: The Cold War Cowboy (2022) - Full cast & crew - IMDb . Retrieved 2025-09-19 via www.imdb.com.
  34. Heller, Steven (2015-02-19). "Socialist Regime, Commercial Design". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  35. "Beyond the Wall. TASCHEN's groundbreaking volume on GDR visual and material culture. TASCHEN Books". www.taschen.com. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  36. Welch, David (2014-12-05). "'DDR Posters' and 'Beyond the Wall'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  37. "Culver City's Cold War museum remembers the Berlin Wall's fall". Los Angeles Times. 2014-11-10. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  38. Staff, C. N. N. "Behind the Iron Curtain: Vintage designs from communist East Germany". CNN. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  39. "Beyond the Wall. TASCHEN's groundbreaking volume on GDR visual and material culture. TASCHEN Books". www.taschen.com. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  40. Jampol, Justinian (2015-08-22). "LA art scene finally hits critical mass". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  41. "The Cold War as a museum: At the Wende, one man's 100,000-piece collection finds a new home". Los Angeles Times. 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2025-09-19.