The Vera List Center for Art and Politics

The Vera List Center for Art and Politics (VLC) at The New School, founded in 1992 and named in honor of the late philanthropist Vera G. List, organizes public events that respond to the role of the arts in society and their relationship to the sociopolitical climate in which they are created. It remains the only organization with the exclusive mission to investigate the intersection for art and politics. Its director is Carin Kuoni. ^[1]

Mission

The Vera List Center for Art and Politics hosts public programs that are articulated by the academic community and by visual and performing artists which bring together scholars and students, the people of New York City, and national and international audiences in an exploration of new possibilities for civic engagement. The center aims to create a platform for the intersection of art and politics within the public sphere.^[2] The center is based in New York, but engages the international community through its variety of public programming, classes, prizes, publications, fellowships and exhibitions.

Biennial Focus Theme

Each year, the center identifies a topic of particular urgency and broad resonance and convenes artists, scholars, activists, public intellectuals, and political and cultural leaders to examine this theme in a variety of programs.^[3] The first annual theme for 2004–05 was Homeland, followed by Considering Forgiveness in 2005–06, The Public Domain in 2006–07, Agency in 2007–08, Branding Democracy in 2008–09, Speculating on Change in 2009–10, Thingness in 2011–13 and Alignment in 2013-2015. The current theme for 2015–17 is Post Democracy.

Public Events

The Vera List Center organizes panel discussions, lectures, conferences, workshops, and online programs that are created in consultation with the center’s advisory committee and with current and former fellows. Occasionally, the VLC produces exhibitions.

All VLC initiatives are driven by the live encounter of artists, scholars, historians and other thinkers and makers who together consider topics of broad popular relevance. From these live events spring additional programs such as those featured on the Vera List Center website, including Art & Research Projects, Publications, and others.

Website

The Vera List Center's website, is an online extension of live programs with links to debates, issues, projects, and people within and outside The New School. It includes video and audio of public programs, which can also be viewed on their Vimeo page, creative material generated in advance of and in response to events, special projects by artists, video interviews with event participants, and, more recently, downloadable Resource Guides to public programs. Also accessible are more information on specific exhibitions, publications, the Biennial Prize, Fellowships, student Writing Award, and the full archive of events since 1992.

Vera List Center Prize

The Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics recognizes an artist or group of artists who has gone to great lengths to advocate for social justice in bold and visionary ways. The biennial prize, whose recipient is selected from a jury of writers, artists and curators, honors a project for its artistic merit and lasting impact. Celebrating over twenty years of the Center and the work of philanthropist, Vera List, the prize continues her lifelong dedication of supporting artists and their activism. ^[4]

The prize initiative strives to engage communities from both within The New School and reaching beyond to an international audience, to foster the connection between art and social justice. Over the course of an extended period of time, the entire event takes place across various platforms including an exhibition, conference, classroom participation and publications. Recipients of the prize, which was designed by Yoko Ono, receive a short-term New York City residency as well as a cash award. ^[5]

Recipients

2012-2014: Theaster Gates and Dorchester Projects

Theaster Gates was the 2012-2014 prize recipient for, Dorchester Projects.^[6] Theaster Gates: A Way of Working was an 18-month collaboration between the artist and The New School that culminated into a two-day forum and gallery presentation. This exhibition examined the ways in which the artist develops synergies with his work and the complexities of working in an expanded studio practice within the institutional framework. The exhibition featured several works of the artist including drawing, sculpture, installation and video.

Theaster Gates, an American artist, activist and Artistic Director for the Rebuild Foundation, focuses his work on political enfranchisement, historical reclamation, and social inclusion. His Dorchester Projects started in 2006 with the transformation of two buildings into community gathering spaces on Chicago’s South Side. Gates uses art, spirituality, and community engagement as a way to analyze urban renewal and social justice.

Press: ArtForum NY Times Culturebot Words in Space

2014-2016: Abounaddara

Abounaddara, the anonymous film collective based in Syria, was the recipient of The New School’s 2014 Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics.^[7] Throughout the course of the 18-month collaboration, The Vera List Center and Abounaddara worked together to bring the collective’s work to the United Nations where there was a panel discussion on civilian representation and freedom of speech in Syria. The final culmination of the prize initiative, titled, “Abounaddara. The Right To The Image” was a series of events consisting of a gallery exhibition, conference and various film screenings, that explored the ways in which civilians are represented in times of conflict.

Emerging from the civil uprising in 2011, Abounaddara is known for its “emergency cinema” which seeks to transcend mainstream war reporting. The collective’s work highlights individuals, coming from all sides of the conflict to remind viewers both of the daily life and complexity of the civil war unfolding in Syria. Their weekly video vignettes published on their Vimeo account are intimate, jarring, and poignant. Abounaddara’s driving force within their work is the belief in the “right to the image” which they define as upholding the dignity of civilians who otherwise might not have a say in how they are represented.

Press: NY Times ArtForum BOMB Magazine El Tiempo (Spanish) JutarnjiList (Croatian) NPR Radio Havana Cuba (Spanish) W Radio (Spanish)

Publications

As an extension of its public programming, the Vera List Center produces publications ranging from occasional papers, exhibition guides and books to interactive online artist projects. Following the center’s interdisciplinary model, these publications respond to themes explored in the context of lectures, panel discussions, workshops, and other programs, and frequently incorporate new texts commissioned from event collaborators and others.

Entry Points: The Vera List Center Field Guide on Art and Social Justice, No. 1

Entry Points: The Vera List Center Field Guide on Art and Social Justice, No. 1 is a collaboration of artists, writers, policy makers, and scholars coming together to analyze the integral role of the arts in advocating for social justice. The book reflects on key moments in history at the global level where justice has been advanced by art. The first half of the work consists of three essays by Thomas Keenan, João Ribas, and Sharon Sliwinski, in addition to featuring twenty other artist projects that speak to the role of arts in social justice. The second half of the book features Theaster Gates’s The Dorchester Projects, which was the recipient for the inaugural Vera List Prize for Art and Politics in 2013. Essayists include Horace D. Ballard Jr., Romi N. Crawford, Shannon Jackson, and Mabel O. Wilson. This section also features an interview between Gates and Vera List Center director, Carin Kuoni. Editors include Chelsea Haines and Carin Kuoni. ^[8]

Speculation, Now.

Speculation, Now is a collection of essays and artwork that offers radical, interdisciplinary concepts challenging our understanding of reality and how these new integrative perspectives can potentially alter reality. ^[9]The book is a collaboration of images, concepts and language edited by Vyjayanthi Venuturupalli Rao, Prem Krishnamurthy and Carin Kuoni and includes an afterword by Arjun Appadurai. Artists and essayists include Arjun Appadurai, William Darity Jr., Filip De Boeck, Boris Groys,Hans Haacke, Darrick Hamilton, Laura Kurgan, Lin + Lam, Gary Lincoff, Lize Mogel, Christina Moon, Stefania Pandolfo, Satya Pemmaraju, Mary Poovey, Walid Raad, Sherene Schostak, Robert Sember, and Srdjan Jovanović Weiss.

Considering Forgiveness

Considering Forgiveness ^[10] (published in 2009) examines issues of social, cultural and political relevance from a multitude of perspectives and is edited by Aleksandra Wagner with Carin Kuoni, with curatorial advice by Matthew Buckingham. ^[11] It features textual and visual contributions commissioned for this publication from scholars, activists and artists, including Anne Aghion, Ayreen Anastas, Gregg Bordowitz, Omer Fast, Rene Gabri, Andrea Geyer, Mark Godfrey, Sharon Hayes, Sandi Hillal, Alessandro Petti and Eyal Weizman, Susan Hiller, Julia Kristeva, Lin + Lam, Jeffrey Olick, Brian Price, Jane Taylor, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and Elisabeth Young-Bruehl.

OURS: Democracy in the Age of Branding Exhibition Guide

OURS: Democracy in the Age of Branding Exhibition Guide was on view at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design from October 15, 2008, to February 1, 2009. It was an interdisciplinary investigation of democracy positioned as a consumer brand that included original commissions by Alexis Baghat, Erick Beltran, Kota Ezawa, Liam Gillick, Emma Kay, Runo Lagomarsino, Aleksandra Mir, Nadine Robinson, and The Yes Men, and works by Sam Durant, Miguel Luciano, Carlos Motta, Trevor Paglen, Judi Werthein and many others. ^[12]

Fellowships

Every year, the Vera List Center appoints a fellow or fellows from a pool of outstanding artists, curators, critics, and scholars who become an important part of the center’s intellectual foundation, contributing to its public programs while enjoying support in their projects from the VLC and The New School faculty. Past fellows include, Maurice Berger, Wendy T. Ewald, Andrea Geyer, Margarita Gutman, Susan Hapgood, Sharon Hayes, Danny Hoch, Ashley Hunt, Kobena Mercer, Lorraine O’Grady, Olu Oguibe, Silvana Paternostro, Wendy Perron, Marjetica Potrc, Leslie Prosterman, Walid Raad, Sarah Rothenberg, Edward Rothstein, Katya Sander, Elisabeth Sussman, David Thorne, and Jonathan Weinberg.

2009-10 Fellows

• Since 2001, Lin + Lam have produced interdisciplinary projects that examine the ramifications of the past for the current socio-political moment. Attentive to materiality, site, and the specificities of different medium, their collaboration integrates their individual strengths and backgrounds.
• Robert Sember is a member of the international sound art collective, Ultra-red, which collaborates with constituencies involved in migrant rights, fair housing and anti-racist struggles, and efforts to combat the AIDS crisis.

2011-13 Fellows

• Bouchra Khalili
• Joshua Simon

2013-15 Fellows

• Jill Magid
• Alexander Provan

2015-2017 Fellows

• Lawrence Abu Hamdan
• Victoria Sobel and Casey Gollan of Free Cooper Union

2015-2017 Fellowship Announcement

Advisory Committee Members

References

External links

• Democracy, Barack Obama, and the American Void