Introduction to New York's Art World // Panel Discussion

Introduction to the New York Art World // Panel Discussion
Thursday, January 26, 2012
195 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 7-9 pm
FREE

New York is an international hub for the most exciting art and artists. But how to break in? On Thursday, January 26, we're opening the Introduction to New York's Art World class to the public with an eye-opening panel discussion. Learn from a diverse panel of art world professionals as they shed light on how to begin and sustain a career in the New York art world of the 21st century.  Moderated by class instructor Krista Saunders,  the panel will consist of informal conversation with the panelists John Baber, Amani Olu, Deborah Brown and Nora Gomez. 

RSVP : http://www.3rdward.com/rsvp

Instructor & Moderator

Krista Saunders is an independent curator based in Brooklyn, NY. She has worked for the ICA in Philadelphia, the Queens Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of Art and New Museum of Contemporary Art in various capacities. Saunders is a proud member of the Momenta Art Advisory Board and a 2010-11 Lori Ledis Curatorial Fellow. In addition to exhibitions in conventional spaces such as the Center for Emerging Visual Arts in Philadelphia and NURTUREart Inc. in Brooklyn, NY, her curatorial portfolio also includes site-specific exhibitions in alternative forums such as Urban Alchemist Design Collective, The Old Stone House and Vax Moto motorcycle garage.


Guest Speakers

John Baber is an artist and curator based in Astoria, New York. He is the assistant to the director, Lesley Heller, of the Lesley Heller Workspace. In 2009, he was the recipient of a curatorial grant sponsored by the George A. Ohl Jr.Trust Foundation. Other past projects include artist and curator in residence of Java Studios in Brooklyn and curator of The Urban Situation at the Educational Alliance, New York City. In 2011, he co-founded Art for Japan, which benefitted UNICEF. He is currently working on a new series of paintings, entitled “the object mystique.”


Amani Olu is an independent curator, writer, designer, and the co-founder and executive director of Humble Arts Foundation, a New York based 501c3 committed to supporting and promoting new art photography. He produced, designed, and co-curated The Collector’s Guide to New Art Photography Vol. 2, published by Humble. In addition to his work as a non-profit director, he also organizes the annual Young Curators, New Ideas exhibition. Recently, Olu organized Tuesday, the first guest-curated exhibition at Mixed Greens, which examined less obvious manifestation of the Everyday in contemporary art. His projects have been reviewed and featured in prestigious publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artnews, Time Out NY, Code, and AM New York and more.  Olu is also a regular contributor toWhitewall magazine where he has interviewed William Eggleston and Gottfried Helnwein, and profiled K8 Hardy, Elad Lassry, Rashaad Newsome, and David Benjamin Sherry. He lives and works in New York and is a proud member of New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA).


Deborah Brown has lived and worked in New York since 1982. She is represented by Lesley Heller Workspace in New York, where she showed "The Bushwick Paintings" in January/February 2011. She has also had solo shows at Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, California; Mira Mar Gallery, Sarasota, Florida; and Addison Ripley, Washington, D.C. Since 2006 she has had a studio in Bushwick, where she owns and directs the gallery, Storefront Bushwick. She serves on the board of Momenta and NURTUREart, not-for-profit art spaces in Brooklyn, and is a member of Brooklyn’s Community Board #4. In addition to her work as a painter, she has executed public art projects around the country including mosaics commissioned by the MTA for the Houston Street subway station in Manhattan and a series of roundels for the Royal Caribbean Cruise Terminal at the Port of Miami for Miami-Dade Art in Public Places. Her interview with Lucie Alig, "Not an Aesthetic, But an Attitude: Artist Deborah Brown on the Future of Bushwick's Art Scene,” appeared in ARTINFO in September 2011.


Nora Gomez is born and raised in Queens, NY. Her work has shifted from graphic design and print publication production to overseeing social media strategies and online presence.  Nora joined the staff of the Queens Museum of Art in 2008 and spearheaded the creation of a social media campaign to help alleviate the pressures of a shrinking marketing budget.  Over the course of her three years at the museum, she was able to launch the museum on various online platforms, including an active Facebook page and a Twitter feed with currently over 25,000 followers. In 2009, Nora executed the museum’s first entirely online gala, netting the museum the same funds as previous years’ catered affairs. Nora joined the staff of the Public Art Fund in the fall of 2011as Communications and Digital Media Manager and continues to use online platforms as a means of spreading awareness and interest in  the arts. She holds a BS in Art Education with a concentration in Photography from SUNY New Paltz and a master’s degree in Arts & Cultural Management from Pratt Institute.