Advisory board members and spring programs

The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School is pleased to announce the appointment of five new advisory board members: Daniel Altabef, Dr. Suzanne Kite, Louise Neri, Sadaf Padder, and Ellen Taubman. Read the full press release here.

These new board members join the center this spring for an exciting, recently announced roster of programs, screenings, convenings, and publications at the VLC, closing out their current two-year research cycle Correction*. For up-to-date listings, please visit veralistcenter.org or register for our Monday newsletter here.

The new board appointments follow a year-long effort led by the center’s nominating committee—comprising board chair JK Brown and vice chairs Megan Noh and Norman Kleeblatt, as well as board members Frances F. L. Beatty, Linda Earle, Jane Lombard, Alan Michelson, and Keith Obadike—to identify and recruit new volunteer leadership who would represent the center’s diverse constituencies, provide strategic guidance and support for the center’s staff and ongoing mission.

“The fields of art and politics are facing urgent and often polarizing challenges,” said JK Brown, Chair of the Vera List Center Board. “Given our strong commitment to serving both politically engaged artists and diverse publics here in New York, nationally, and internationally, it is essential that our board continue to bring nuanced perspectives and expertise to our essential work. Danny, Suzanne, Louise, Sadaf, and Ellen share our values and a commitment to our mission, and each brings a unique lens to our work. We are grateful for their service.” 

Carin Kuoni, the VLC’s Senior Director/Chief Curator, added: “It’s such a sign of hopefulness and forward-looking energy to have this distinguished group of experts join us. I am deeply honored to welcome them to our organization. I’m also grateful to the executive and nominating committees, especially our chair JK Brown, for their leadership throughout this process. Together, the board and staff look to the center’s future with great excitement and optimism. These are trying times, and we’re ready to tackle them.”

Distinguished leaders with diverse expertise
The new members are each accomplished leaders in their respective fields: Daniel Altabef, an attorney serving as director, chief compliance officer, and counsel at the global asset management firm Brigade Capital Management; Dr. Suzanne Kite, an Oglála Lakȟóta artist, composer, long-time VLC collaborator, and academic serving as Director of Wihanble S’a Lab at Bard College, where she is also a distinguished-artist-in-residence in the studio arts program and assistant professor of American and Indigenous Studies; Louise Neri, the founder and artistic director of Extraterritorial Inc., a new platform for curatorial, editorial and strategic counsel across the arts; Sadaf Padder, an independent curator and founder of Alpha Arts Alliance; and Ellen Taubman, an art historian, curator, collector, and philanthropist with a particular interest in Indigenous art.

Executive committee expands with new vice chairs
Additionally, the center announced the appointment of two long-serving board members to the roles of vice chair: Linda Earle, retired professor of practice in arts management/art history at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University, and Alan Michelson, artist, curator, writer, lecturer and Mohawk member of the Six Nations of the Grand River. Earle and Michelson were both appointed to the center’s board in 2020.

The five new board members round out an already exceptional group of long-serving members: Ujju Aggarwal, Frances F. L. Beatty, JK Brown, Linda Earle, Marilyn Greene, Susan Hapgood, Aryana Ghazi Hessami, Carin Kuoni, Norman Kleeblatt, Jane Lombard, Susan Meiselas, Alan Michelson, Megan Noh, Mendi and Keith Obadike, Nancy Delman Portnoy, Silvia Rocciolo, and Mary Watson.

Two-year research cycle on Correction* culminates in spring 2024
This spring, the Vera List Center will present several major programs as the culmination of its two-year research cycle on Correction*. The final chapter includes Correction* seminar ten: Reducing Harm (As Prompt, As Practice), a conversation on harm reduction’s role as an expansive and diverse set of practices and principles with Imani Mason Jordan and Tamara Oyola-Santiago (February 12). Seminar eleven: Many Returns focuses on issues of restitution, rematriation, land back, and return rooted in Indigenous perspectives, from Turtle Island to Palestine, with Tahila C. Mintz and Vivien Sansour (March 4). The last seminar in the series will be announced at a later date.

Other spring highlights include Off Script, a performance event convening Maria Hupfield’s Breaking Protocol (Inventory Press and VLC 2023) and Michael Nardone’s Aural Poetics (OEI ëditor 2023), presented in collaboration with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery in Vancouver (March 2). Participants include Peter Morin, Patrick Nickleson, Skeena Reece, Dylan Robinson, and Charlene Vickers.

A conversation on Studies into Darkness: The Perils and Promise of Freedom of Speech brings the book’s design into conversation with its timely content on free speech and censorship. The book’s co-designer, artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti, engages with co-editors Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich and contributor Gabriela López Dena, hosted at New York’s Francis Kite Club.

In May and June, wrapping up her 2022–24 Borderlands Fellowship, artist Fox Maxy hosts a filmmaking workshop that explores the links between storytelling and mental wellness. 

All programs and events of the Vera List Center are free for all to attend, physically and virtually. Most public programs are recorded and shared on our website, Vimeo, and The New School YouTube page. Most online events feature automated captions and ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation.

If you have specific access questions or needs for future programs, please contact us at least five days prior to the program at vlc [​at​] newschool.edu.