Upon his appointment, the artist reflected on the urgency he feels to “make sense of rapidly unfolding events, question prevailing narratives, and imagine alternative futures.”
Artist, educator, and writer Pablo Helguera has been appointed as the new director of the New School’s Vera List Center for Art and Politics (VLC), succeeding Senior Director and Chief Curator Carin Kuoni, who steered the arts-driven research center for 22 years. Helguera was also tapped as the director of the university’s art collection, which consists of over 2,000 postwar and contemporary works.
Having entered the new role this Monday, November 2, Helguera takes the reins after six years of serving as an assistant professor and director of the Arts Management and Entrepreneurship graduate program at the New School’s College of Performing Arts. Helguera was previously the director of adult and academic programs at the Museum of Modern Art for over a decade.
As an artist, Helguera centers social engagement through public performance and installation, archival findings, pedagogical practices, and traditional media. Among his most famous projects is “The School of Panamerican Unrest” (2006), a cross-continental road trip from Anchorage, Alaska, to Ushuaia, capital of Argentina’s southernmost Tierra del Fuego province, that culminated in over 100 public engagement events across 25 cities in 20 countries. Helguera is also known for developing Librería Donceles, a traveling used bookstore with thousands of Spanish-language texts that visited 13 countries.
The social, ideological, and cultural frameworks of language are prominent themes that Helguera explores in his practice, which coalesces with his roles in education and public programming. He became a Guggenheim Fellow in 2008, and additional recognitions include support from the Franklin Furnace Archive, Art Matters, and Blade of Grass; a Creative Capital grant; and an honorary doctorate from the Kansas City Art Institute.