Jane Hait, Founder at Vera List Center Forum 2022

Vera G. List’s philanthropic activities led to the creation of not only the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, but also a number of other art organizations, spaces, and initiatives across universities and cultural institutions, including the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Brown University’s List Art Center, and the Vera List Art Project at Lincoln Center.

Such spaces bear more than their founder’s name; they often embody the ethics, aesthetics, and vision of those who created them in explicit and tacit ways. But as philanthropy and art institutions face public scrutiny and increased calls for accountability, the role of philanthropists such as List is being questioned, reimagined, and addressed through new artist-driven and community-led organizations and initiatives.

As we celebrate our founder and chart new paths for the future of the Vera List Center, we look at art spaces emerging around us led by philanthropists and artists that take up the mantle of creating new spaces for experimenting with and experiencing art, but also make room for new ways of doing so. We consider not only the financial contributions of these individuals, but their values and vision for the future of art and society as reflected in the spaces they created for collective work at a moment of renewed hope and urgency for art and politics.

This conversation concludes Day One of the Vera List Center Forum 2022, focusing on the history of the VLC with a forward look at new artistic environments, with speakers including Lulani Arquette, President and CEO of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF), Center for Native Arts and Cultures, Portland, Jane Hait, founder, Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA), and Shani Peters, co-founder, The Black School. Kathy Goncharov and Carin Kuoni introduce the panel with a conversation on Vera G. List.

The Vera List Center Forum 2022 is presented as part of the Center’s 2022–2024 Focus Theme Correction*. It is curated by Carin Kuoni and Eriola Pira and convened with the support of Tabor Banquer, Re’al Christian, Camila Palomino, Adrienne Umeh, Paria Ahmadi, Ash Moniz, and Tania Aparicio Morales.