Michael David Katchen, artist, archivist, and educator, passed away peacefully on February 12, 2023, at his home in Brooklyn, New York.

Michael was born on July 21, 1955, to Vera Jean Waskie and Michael Katchen in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Many of Michael’s life-long interests—photography, swimming, collecting, construction, and love of all tools—were formed early on during his years in Allentown. Since his house was generously allowed by his parents to function as his center of social activity during high school, it was there that his love of conversation and eclectic, enduring friendships developed.

Michael received a BFA from Philadelphia College of Art and an MFA from Hunter College. In 1980 while pursuing his MFA degree, he began an internship at Franklin Furnace, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to showcasing performance art, artists’ books, and other time-based ephemeral arts, located on Franklin Street in Manhattan’s
Tribeca neighborhood. In quick succession Michael was hired to be the Registrar and then Director of Collections, a post he held from 1983 to 1993. Under Michael’s stewardship, Franklin Furnace amassed over 13,500 titles of artists’ books and related materials, which were acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in 1993. After facilitating the transfer of the Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection to the MoMA library, Michael focused on digitizing, preserving, and cataloging forty-five years of arts events produced by Franklin Furnace and making them publicly available as online research resources.

Aside from its reputation as an important nexus for avant-garde art, Franklin Furnace was also known behind the scenes for its openness, inclusivity, and as a vital hub for
nurturing emerging artists and arts professionals (sometimes these were one and the same). It was also the space where Michael met and courted his future wife, Suzanne. Their love of art and swimming quickly drew them together (at this time Michael was a dedicated U.S. Masters Swimmer).

 Michael and Suzanne married in 2001 at a seaside
wedding in Santa Cruz, California. In the ensuing years they had two wonderful daughters. Michael was a proud and devoted father. It was his greatest pleasure to watch his
daughters grow and to talk to them about everything. He armed them with philosophical and practical knowledge. Lessons on feminism started in grade school as did the proper use of a ruler, scissors, and an eraser. By the time his daughters reached middle school, he passed onto them his small anvil for their jewelry making, and cameras for
exploring the visual world.

Michael’s last project was the creation of a new Franklin Furnace collection of contemporary and historic artists’ books. In 2020, the Board of Directors honored Michael’s long and dedicated service by naming the historical database that he created the Michael D. Katchen Relational Database.
Michael was a frequent speaker, panelist, and presenter at conferences sponsored by the Society of American Archivists (SAA), American Institute for Conservation of Historic
and Artistic Works, (AIC), Electronic Media Group, (EMG), and the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA), among others.

Michael was an adjunct faculty member at the School of Visual Arts in New York and was a mentor for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students in the fine arts and in library science from schools in the U.S. and around the world.

Michael was also a practicing artist whose work has been presented in a one-person exhibition at the Stamford Museum, and in group exhibitions at Henry Street Settlement, Rhode Island School of Design, Housatonic Museum of Art, Connecticut College, and the New York Public Library. Michael employed collage techniques from disparate print and digital sources to create a vast body of work that was both familiar and jarring. 

In his own words: “The artwork I create serves as both a personal expression and a social commentary on the codified
visual literacy employed by contemporary society. By altering, re-purposing, and subverting images and visual language that people know and use, consciously and
unconsciously, I introduce a different and meaningful reinterpretation and perhaps a visual roadmap for others to question and reflect upon.”

For the past ten years Michael had been battling both ALS and Parkinson’s disease. It was a testament to his spirit that he continued to make art until the last few months of
his life, until he was physically unable to do so.

Michael is survived by his wife, Suzanne Varni; their daughters, Lucina and Marissa; his sisters Kathryn Maasz and Kimberly Costanzo; brother-in-laws Mark Maasz and Tony Costanzo; niece Kim Carwile and nephew Tristian Costanzo.

In lieu of gifts or flowers, please consider donating to Bridging Voice, a group that assists more than a million people struggling from the impact of neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or another great group--the ALS Organization of Greater New York, which was always so very helpful to us.