The Vera List Center for Art and Politics is a research center and a public forum for art, culture, and politics. It was established at The New School in 1992. As the Assistant Director of Editorial Initiatives, I edit, manage, and develop the VLC's publishing projects, which comprise anthologies, artist books, exhibition booklets, and multimedia digital projects. Upon joining the VLC in August 2021, I oversaw the completion of the anthologies Studies into Darkness: The Perils and Promise of Freedom of Speech (2022) and Maria Thereza Alves: Seeds of Change (2023). With these titles, I manage a new partnership between the VLC and Amherst College Press to co-publish all titles under the imprint as both print and open access e-books. Other book projects at the VLC include Breaking Protocol, a book by transdisciplinary artist Maria Hupfield focused on Indignous performance practices, for which I was the co-managing editor. I am also the co-editor and managing editor of the forthcoming anthology As for Protocols (2024), which examines “protocols” as systems of language and communication. In additional to numerous exhibition and program-related catalogues, guides, and booklets, I also initiated a digital publishing series entitled Post/doc, an experimental digital publishing series for discursive, speculative, experimental writing and artistic practices. The series features works by writers, artists, musicians, and poets paired together and jointly published, building on the Center's two-year Focus Themes.

ART PAPERS is an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization and publication with an educational mission to provide accessible forums for documenting, examining, commissioning, and presenting contemporary art and culture in the world today.www.artpapers.org

My writing explores issues related to identity, diasporas, ecology, media, and materiality. My essays, interviews, and criticism have appeared in Art in America, Artforum, BOMB Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, and ART PAPERS, where I am a Contributing Editor. I have written for catalogues and anthologies including Track Changes: A Handbook for Art Criticism (Paper Monument 2023); Howardena Pindell: Numbers/Pathways/Grids (Garth Greenan and Dieu Donné 2022), On the Town: A Performa Compendium 2016–2021 (Gregory R. Miller & Co. 2022), Zipora Fried (Sikkema Jenkins & Co. 2021), Katia Santibañez: Lumens Anima (DC Moore 2021), and Myeongsoo Kim: Mother-Land (CUE Art Foundation 2020). To read my work, please visit www.rschristian.com.

The Hunter College Art Galleries, under the auspices of the Department of Art and Art History, have been a vital aspect of the New York cultural landscape since their inception over a quarter of a century ago. In this role, I worked with the Chief Curator on the organization and programming of two major exhibitions: Life as Activity: David Lamelas (2021), curated by Harper Montgomery, and the four-venue traveling exhibition The Black Index, curated by Bridget R. Cooks (2020–2022). In addition to working on the exhibitions, I contributed essays and assisted with copy editing and proofreading each exhibition’s accompanying catalogue, while additionally participating in or facilitating artist talks, conversations, performances, and tours for the university community and beyond.

In this role, I performed archival and source material research of works from the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI, 1984–91), assisting with partnerships and initiatives between Hunter College and MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires).

At CAA, I assisted in the planning of the Annual Conference; administered session submission database; coordinated off-site events including tours, lectures, and receptions; managed development and design of conference publications; administered registration for Book & Trade Fair exhibitors; helped manage the session schedule, session information; and facilitated the work of session chairs and presenters.

As the assistant to the Director and Chief Curator, Chief of Staff, and Executive Coordinator, my responsibilities included extensive artist and exhibition research for the Director’s presentations and speaking engagements, correspondence with the museum’s Board of Trustees and external stakeholders, and overseeing administrative tasks in preparation for the museum’s forthcoming expansion, which involved drafting archive retention policies, public art research, and coordinating site visits and building committee meetings. I was also able to take over a number of writing intensive projects, which included media monitoring for a comprehensive weekly report sent to the Board with art industry news pertaining to the museum and African diasporic art. I was also tasked with drafting editorial contributions by the Director to various art publications, conducting biographical research on the Director’s colleagues and former affiliates for letters of support, and copy editing communications sent on behalf of the Director’s office. Other responsibilities included assisting in tracking Director’s personal collection of artwork, compiling expense reports, and maintaining the Director’s calendar.

As Development Assistant at the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) and AAMC Foundation, I worked directly under the Executive Director on all aspects of development, operations, programming, and administration in order to promote the organization’s support of the curatorial profession, as well as its commitment to diversity and inclusion. With a small team comprising of only myself, the director, and a programming associate, this position required me to work fluidly between a variety of tasks and meet deadlines in a timely manner. My day to day responsibilities at AAMC included overseeing individual and institutional memberships, processing gifts, maintaining AAMC’s website content, creating email campaigns, as well as keeping track of foundation and corporate sponsors, organizing donor files, drafting acknowledgements, managing the logistics of our annual fund drive, editing board meeting minutes maintaining the office calendar, and conducting prospect research and cultivation. I also worked with AAMC’s board of trustees, eight planning committees, and over 1,300 international members. AAMC completed its sixteenth annual conference in New York in May 2017. My responsibilities leading up to the conference included booking travel and accommodations for all speakers, coordinating travel and registration for our thirty current and incoming board members, meeting deliverables, securing advertisements and sponsorship agreements for the conference catalogue, assisting members with registration and payment, and managing nominations for our annual curatorial awards. During the conference, I was responsible for on-site registration and check-in, coordinating with my colleagues and directing inquiries as needed, setting up and running the quarterly board of trustees meeting, and helping coordinate weekend tours.

The Grey Art Gallery is New York University's fine arts museum. Working with the Associate Director and Head of Exhibitions and Collections, I assisted with a wide range of registrarial tasks relating to the planning and installation of both traveling and permanent collection exhibitions, including Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952–1965; A Feast of Astonishments: Charlotte Moorman and the Avant-Garde, 1960s–1980s; Global/Local 1960–2015: Six Artists from Iran; For a New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography 1968-1979; and Tseng Kwong Chi: Performing for the Camera.

As a part of RLHS at NYU, I was responsible for working at the building resource center to aid residents with questions and concerns. I also assisted the director, assistant director, and resource manager with daily administrative tasks, and helped organize and oversee programs for residents.

The Bleecker Street Arts Club was a contemporary art gallery located in the West Village of Manhattan. My responsibilities included invoicing, archiving artist and product information, and assisting with exhibition installations and opening receptions.

GOT Art Gallery is a small gallery located in the Kansas City, MO area. Curated college exhibit, Voyeur, for summer 2014: selected artists and artwork, led exhibition setup and breakdown, and created promotional materials for both traditional and social media. Also installed exhibits for other individual and group shows, and wrote press releases and created promotional materials for new exhibits.