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The Vera List Center for Art and Politics is an artist-focused research center and public forum for art, culture, and politics.

Established in 1992 at The New School. Our 2025–2027 Focus Theme is Matter of Intelligence. Our Focus Theme lasts for two years and informs everything we do and creates opportunities for shared learning with artists, scholars, activists, public intellectuals, students, and political and cultural leaders. Focus Theme for 2020-22 is "As for Protocols"

Explicitly—or not—protocols determine much of what we do. Supplanting traditional notions of “good manners,” protocols are languages that regulate how people relate to each other, to their cultural, social, and political environments, and to the technologies that create them. They are evidence of governmental, organizational, social, or corporate power structures. Protocols speak to processes, rather than finite outcomes. While often overlooked or invisible, they set the tone and conditions for potential encounters. Investigating them as such will allow us to contribute to the creation of new protocols that are inclusive and equitable, ranging from computer interfaces, A.I., data aggregation, and algorithms to community agreements and culturally-specific engagement protocols to protocols undergirding scientific research. As “protocol” may also refer to documentation and minutes, the term signals a hybrid time frame of both the past and projection into the future. With the engagement of artists, scholars, activists, and students, the Vera List Center will consider protocols as the foundations for the performance of living, and begin thinking and working toward new spaces of political empowerment.

10/14/2026

Join us this Saturday, October 17 at 2 pm, for session II of the Black Feminist Study Group, featuring writer and critic Zoë Hopkins on poet Dionne Brand’s “Nomenclature for the Time Being.”

In “Nomenclature for the Time Being,” published in Nomenclature: New and Selected Poems (Duke University Press 2022), Brand considers catastrophes of the present, where “diaspora consciousness dismantles our quotidian disasters.” In her response to the text, Hopkins considers questions of place, counter-cartography, and the unnamable embedded within Brand’s work.

The Black Feminist Study Group is a four-part program shaped by the poetics and practice of Rosana Paulino (Rosana Paulino), recipient of Vera List Center for Art and Politics’s 2025–2027 Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice. Assembled within Paulino’s prize exhibition ¿𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵ó𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭?, the study group is anchored by seminal texts that touch on interconnected struggles for liberation and resistance throughout the African diaspora.

The Black Feminist Study Group is hosted and co-convened by Re’al Christian (Re'al Christian). It is generously supported by Critical Minded.

Find the full study group schedule, reading list, and registration at the link in Vera List Center for Art and Politics’s bio.

zoë Critical Minded Re'al Christian Vera List Center for Art and Politics The New School

10/13/2026

Tune into 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 Seminar 7, “Intelligence, Uncertain,” on Monday, October 19 at 2pm EDT online. Co-presented by the VLC and Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

If intelligence has always been a contested site—attributed, withheld, performed, disputed—misinformation and disinformation reveal the political stakes of that contest in their sharpest form. Presented in partnership with Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin, this seminar explores uncertainty in the context of contemporary cultural, political, and technological transformations.

HKW Fellows Nora Al-Badri (Nora Al-Badri) and manuel arturo abreu (manuel arturo abreu), and neuroscientist and writer Suparna Choudhury, consider how artistic practice might engage these conditions by holding complexity, sustaining uncertainty without surrendering to it, and refusing false clarity without collapsing into relativism. Moderated by HWK’s Sara Morais dos Santos Bruss ().

Learn more about the seminar and kindly register in advance at the link in our bio.

Images
1. Graphic design by Polymode.
2. Courtesy HKW.
3. manuel arturo abreu, The light fixture in my bedroom + zine, 2022. Installation view, Transactions with Eternity, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Munich, Germany, 2022. Copyright manuel arturo abreu, Courtesy Kwon and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler.
4. Nora Al-Badri, The Post-Truth Museum, 2021–23. Courtesy the artist.

Nora Al-Badri manuel arturo abreu

10/09/2026

The VLC Forum 2026: 𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 kicks off today, presented October 9 & 10 The New School and live-streamed at veralistcenter.org! As always, all programming is free and open to the public with advanced registration ✨

Join us for:

DAY ONE | FRI, OCT 9
✨Black Feminist Study Group I: Jessica Lynne on Beatriz Nascimento
✨Exhibition opening, Rosana Paulino: ¿História Natural?
✨Prize Presentation and Conversation: Rosana Paulino with Denise Ferreira da Silva and Diane Lima
✨VLC Community Dinner: Dream Futures, with a performance by Kite, Robbie Wing, and New School students; an artistic provocation by Stephanie Dinkins; and a DJ Set by Moniki

DAY TWO | SAT, OCT 10
✨ Keynote lecture by Chus Martínez
✨ Conversations with the Jane Lombard Fellows: Jenna Sutela with Elvia Wilk; Stephanie Dinkins with Neta Bomani; Jason Edward Lewis with Mashinka Hakopian; and ArTree Nepal with Prabal Gurung

Rosana Paulino Artree Nepal-Artist Collective Stephanie Dinkins Abundant Intelligences Jenna Sutela netazines Denise Ferreira da Silva Prabal Gurung Mashinka Firunts Hakopian dr kite-wing (Takuyepi Kin Gluonihanwin) Diane Lima Jessica Lynne Chus Martinez Elvia Wilk Robbie Wing Carin Kuoni Eriola Pira Re'al Christian Polymode

10/07/2026

In a globe-encompassing presentation, the VLC Forum 2026: Matter of Intelligence (Oct. 9 & 10) celebrates the Jane Lombard Fellows, finalists for the Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice, alongside recipient Rosana Paulino.

In conversation with their nominators or invited guests, the fellows share their nominated projects and their engagement with the material and intangible dimensions of intelligence.

Join us this Saturday, October 10 at The New School (or tune into the VLC Forum livestream at veralistcenter.org). Free and open to the public with registration. ✨

▪️12–1 pm | Artist Jenna Sutela (Jenna Sutela) joins writer and collaborator Elvia Wilk (Elvia Wilk) to discuss Sutela’s prize-nominated project, “nimiia cétiï”—a work that brings together biological organisms and neural networks to imagine new forms of language and relation.

▪️1 pm | Lunch

▪️2–3 pm | Artist Stephanie Dinkins (Stephanie Dinkins) revisits her landmark project “Conversations with Bina48” in dialogue with abolitionist and educator Neta Bomani (netazines). The two discuss Dinkins’ ongoing exchange with the social robot Bina48, along with technological future histories, Afro-now-ism, and more-than-human knowledge.

▪️3–4 pm | Digital media theorist and poet Jason Edward Lewis speaks with scholar, artist, and 2025–2027 Vera List Center Fellow Mashinka Hakopian (Mashinka Firunts Hakopian) about Abundant Intelligences (Abundant Intelligences), an Indigenous-led research program and network. Drawing on anticolonial approaches to technology, their conversation asks what becomes possible when AI is designed for human and non-human kin alike.

▪️4–5 pm | Artist collective ArTree Nepal (Artree Nepal-Artist Collective) members Lavkant Chaudhary, Mekh Limbu, and Subas Tamang are joined by Nepali American fashion designer Prabal Gurung (Prabal Gurung) for a conversation on ArTree’s “Tika Chhedna Angana” (“A Garden of Body Markings”)—a project centering on Indigenous tattooing practices in Nepal—opening a space to consider Indigenous pedagogies and embodied knowledge.

10/05/2026

Our annual VLC Community Dinner returns this Friday, October 9! Free and open to the public with registration. ✨

This year’s VLC Forum Community Dinner, 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘍𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴, explores dreaming, divining, and futuretelling as powerful forms of intelligence. We convene around shared food, rituals, and artistic interventions:

✨Oglála Lakȟóta artist and VLC Board member Kite (dr kite-wing (Takuyepi Kin Gluonihanwin)) presents a new performance, “Tȟokátakiya Owótȟaŋla na Awíyuškiŋphiča [A Just and Joyful Future] (For the Vera List Center),” with soloist Robbie Wing and an ensemble of New School students.

✨2025–2027 Jane Lombard Fellow Stephanie Dinkins’ (Stephanie Dinkins) Campfire Cards offer playful provocations—inviting us to gather around questions of AI through lived experience, culture, care, power, and collective memory.

✨And a DJ set by Moniki (MONIKI) provides a sonic backdrop for the evening.

Gathering VLC Forum presenters and our community, 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘍𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 is a space to imagine, rehearse, and enact collective futurity. See the link in our bio for registration and details.

The VLC Community Dinner 2026 is free and open to the public with registration! It would not be possible without the support of our chairs and the collaboration of our network of co-hosts:

Chairs:
Critical Minded Christopher K. Ho Chus Martinez Christian Nyampeta

Co-hosts:
Amber-Dawn Bear Robe Pablo Helguera Stefanie Hessler Alhena Katsof Natasha Lennard Le’Andra LeSeur Patricia Michaels Nontsikelelo Mutiti Relative Arts Nat Roe Ki ilk yasha قوامی

10/01/2026

The VLC Forum 2026: Matter of Intelligence celebrates Rosana Paulino (Rosana Paulino), recipient of the VLC’s 2025–2027 Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice for her 2016 artist book ¿História Natural?.

The prize ceremony is presented at The New School and livestreamed at veralistcenter.org. Paulino joins philosopher Denise Ferreira da Silva (Denise Ferreira da Silva) and curator Diane Lima (Diane Lima) in conversation. Together, they discuss their ongoing collaboration, situating Paulino’s practice within broader inquiries into epistemic violence and the role of art in challenging its effects.

The prize ceremony includes welcome remarks by The New School president Joel Towers and an introduction by VLC director Carin Kuoni.

Visit the link in our bio for the full VLC Forum lineup. All programs are free and open to the public with registration ✨

Rosana Paulino Denise Ferreira da Silva Diane Lima Carin Kuoni Vera List Center for Art and Politics The New School

09/30/2026

Curator Chus Martínez (Chus Martinez), chair of the 2025–2027 Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice jury, delivers the keynote lecture for the VLC Forum 2026: Matter of Intelligence.

Presented at The New School and livestreamed at veralistcenter.org, Martínez’s lecture examines intelligence not as a thing we possess, but as a capacity we activate. The question “What should we do with intelligence?” is inseparable from another: What forms of intelligence are still producing the social? Or—in other words—what forms of intelligence are still capable of generating cultural trust?

Martínez considers how trust in culture and trust in each other’s cultures breaks the sense of isolation, polarization, and defensiveness that marks today’s social debates. The program includes welcome remarks and a conversation with Eriola Pira (Eriola Pira), VLC Curator and Programs Director.

Chus Martinez Eriola Pira Vera List Center for Art and Politics The New School

Visit the link in our bio for the full VLC Forum lineup. All programs are free and open to the public with registration ✨

09/28/2026

The Black Feminist Study Group is a four-part program shaped by the poetics and practice of Rosana Paulino, recipient of Vera List Center for Art and Politics’s 2025–2027 Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice.

Assembled within Paulino’s prize exhibition ¿𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵ó𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭?, the study group is anchored by seminal texts that touch on interconnected struggles for liberation and resistance throughout the African diaspora. The weekly series begins on Friday, October 9, marking the opening of Paulino’s exhibition and the first day of the VLC Forum 2026: Matter of Intelligence.

▪️Session I | October 9
Writer and editor Jessica Lynne (Jessica Lynne) leads the first session, with a reading from Beatriz Nascimento’s “The Dialectic Is in the Sea.”

▪️Session II | October 17
Writer and critic Zoë Hopkins (zoë) reads Dionne Brand’s “Nomenclature for the Time Being.”

▪️Session III | October 24
New School scholar Cresa Pugh reads Denise Ferreira da Silva’s “Unpayable Debt.”

▪️Session IV | October 31
Interdisciplinary artist and founder of The Free Black Women’s Library, OlaRonke Akinmowo (OlaRonke) reads Saidiya Hartman’s “Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Q***r Radicals.”

The Black Feminist Study Group is co-convened by Re’al Christian as part of Rosana Paulino: ¿História Natural?, curated by Carin Kuoni and Eriola Pira. It is generously supported by Critical Minded.

Find the full study group and VLC Forum schedules and register in advance at the link in Vera List Center for Art and Politics’s bio.

Jessica Lynne zoë OlaRonke Critical Minded Re'al Christian Vera List Center for Art and Politics The New School

09/22/2026

(Re)introducing our 2025–2027 Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice recipient and fellows!

The VLC Forum 2026 kicks off in two weeks, October 9 & 10. We’re excited to gather with artist Rosana Paulino (Rosana Paulino)—recipient of the VLC’s 2025–2027 Jane Lombard Prize—along with the Jane Lombard Fellows, the prize’s extraordinary finalists: ArTree Nepal (Artree Nepal-Artist Collective), Stephanie Dinkins (Stephanie Dinkins), Jason Edward Lewis (Abundant Intelligences), and Jenna Sutela (Jenna Sutela).

At the VLC Forum 2026—organized under our two-year focus theme, 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦—the artists share their prize-nominated projects:

▪️Rosana Paulino’s prize-winning artist book, ¿𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵ó𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭?, anchors her solo exhibition of the same name. Presented by the VLC October 9–November 1 at The New School, the exhibition traces Paulino’s critical examinations of the entanglements between science, race, knowledge, and power.

▪️ArTree Nepal’sTikā Chedna Angana highlights Indigenous tattooing practices and embodied knowledge in Nepal.
▪️Stephanie Dinkins’s Conversations with Bina48, an ongoing exchange with the social robot Bina48, explores technological future histories, Afro-now-ism, and more-than-human knowledge
▪️Jason Edward Lewis is co-founder of Abundant Intelligences, an Indigenous-led research program foregrounding anticolonial approaches to technology.
▪️Jenna Sutela’s nimiia cétiï brings together biological organisms and neural networks to imagine new forms of language and relation.

Meet the artists in person during the VLC Forum at The New School, or join us in the livestream. Visit the link in our bio for details and registration.

Rosana Paulino Artree Nepal-Artist Collective Stephanie Dinkins Abundant Intelligences Jenna Sutela

09/14/2026

Join us for the VLC Forum 2026: Matter of Intelligence! October 9 & 10, in-person at The New School and online! ✨

An international, annual convening of key participants in the field of art and politics, this year’s VLC Forum is organized within the framework of the center’s two-year focus theme, Matter of Intelligence.

The VLC Forum 2026 celebrates Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino (Rosana Paulino), recipient of the VLC’s 2025–2027 Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice. The forum also highlights the work of the Jane Lombard Fellows, who are finalists for the prize: ArTree Nepal, Stephanie Dinkins, Jason Edward Lewis, and Jenna Sutela.

Over two days, the program convenes artists, curators, writers, scholars, technologists, and our communities to explore the many forms intelligence can take.

Find the full VLC Forum schedule and register at veralistcenter.org.

DAY ONE | FRI, OCT 9
✨Black Feminist Study Group I: Jessica Lynne on Beatriz Nascimento
✨Exhibition opening, Rosana Paulino: ¿História Natural?
✨Prize Presentation and Conversation: Rosana Paulino with Denise Ferreira da Silva and Diane Lima

✨VLC Community Dinner: Dream Futures, with a performance by Kite, Robbie Wing, and New School students; an artistic provocation by Stephanie Dinkins; and a DJ Set by Moniki

DAY TWO | SAT, OCT 10
✨ Keynote lecture by Chus Martínez
✨ Conversations with the Jane Lombard Fellows: Jenna Sutela with Elvia Wilk; Stephanie Dinkins with Neta Bomani; Jason Edward Lewis with Mashinka Hakopian; and ArTree Nepal with Prabal Gurung

The VLC Forum 2026 and 𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘢 𝘗𝘢𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘰: ¿𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵ó𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭? are curated by Carin Kuoni and Eriola Pira. The VLC Forum is convened with the support of Tabor Banquer, Re’al Christian, and Adrienne Umeh.

Rosana Paulino Artree Nepal-Artist Collective Stephanie Dinkins Abundant Intelligences Jenna Sutela netazines Denise Ferreira da Silva Prabal Gurung Mashinka Firunts Hakopian dr kite (Takuyepi Kin Gluonihanwin) Diane Lima Jessica Lynne Chus Martinez Elvia Wilk Robbie Wing Carin Kuoni Eriola Pira Re'al Christian Polymode

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Telephone

+12122292436

Website

http://www.veralistcenter.org/, https://vimeo.com/veralistcenter, https://www.instagram.com/veralistcenter/

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