Contributed photo
Lisa Dent
The artistic director of a Portland, Oregon-based visual arts nonprofit will be the next executive director of Artspace as the longtime leader of the innovative Ninth Square gallery and cultural institution plans to step down later this spring.
Artspace’s Board of Directors announced in a press release Thursday morning that Lisa Dent will replace Helen Kauder as the gallery’s executive director starting May 1.
Dent currently serves as the artistic director of Converge45 in Portland, and has held prior positions as the director of resources & award programs at Creative Capital, as associate curator of contemporary art at the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, and as a Helena Rubenstein Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
She is a graduate of both Howard University and New York University.
“Artspace has driven the cultural community in New Haven through its exhibitions and programs, launching the careers of artists and curators for decades,” Dent is quoted as saying in the release. “I have long admired Artspace’s vision and can’t wait to build on its legacy.”
“I have known and admired Lisa’s work for many years and had the pleasure of interacting with her during her time at Creative Capital in New York City,” Kauder is also quoted as saying in the lease. “I could not be more thrilled that she is coming to New Haven to bring her passion and extensive network to our community of artists.”
See below for the full press release. Click here to read about Artspace’s recent signing of a new 10-year lease extension for its space at the corner of Crown Street and Orange Street.
Thursday’s Artspace press release.
The Board of Directors of Artspace is pleased to announce the appointment of Lisa Dent as its next Executive Director. She will replace Helen Kauder, who announced her intention to pass the baton to new leadership in 2020. Dent will begin her role at Artspace on May 1.
“Artspace has driven the cultural community in New Haven through its exhibitions and programs, launching the careers of artists and curators for decades,” said Dent. “I have long admired Artspace’s vision and can’t wait to build on its legacy.”
“We are delighted that Lisa has agreed to join Artspace and look forward to her getting started,” said Board Chair Kim Moriarty. “I would like to thank our Search Committee for their commitment to identifying such a superb candidate. While Lisa has big shoes to fill, we are confident that she is up for the challenge and capable of leading the organization to new heights.” Helen Kauder adds, “I have known and admired Lisa’s work for many years and had the pleasure of interacting with her during her time at Creative Capital in New York City. I could not be more thrilled that she is coming to New Haven to bring her passion and extensive network to our community of artists.”
Dent’s curatorial roles in national museums and galleries, along with a multi-disciplinary nonprofit arts background, makes her uniquely qualified to lead Artspace. Dent is currently Artistic Director for Converge45, a nonprofit organization that provides a curatorial platform for the visual arts in Portland, Oregon. Prior to joining Converge45, Dent was Director of Resources & Award Programs at Creative Capital (2012 – 2017), leading the national nonprofit’s financial and advisory services programs and supporting artists towards the full realization of their projects. As Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, Dent attracted resources for and organized exhibitions including Stephanie Syjuco: Pattern Migration, Currents: Latifa Echakhch and Supply & Demand. Earlier, she was a Helena Rubenstein Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and held curatorial staff positions at the New Museum of Contemporary Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She was director of the Friedrich Petzel Gallery in New York, and for several years owned and managed Lisa Dent Gallery in San Francisco (2004 – 2009), where she presented the work of emerging and mid-career international artists.
Dent received her B.F.A. in History of Art from Howard University, and received her M.F.A. from New York University. She serves on the Board of Directors of Triple Canopy, a New York-based digital art and literature magazine.
About Artspace:
Founded by artists in 1987 as part of the alternative space movement, Artspace has served as a home for artists from all walks of life to take risks, share their stories and build bridges between Greater New Haven’s diverse communities. Artspace’s mission is to connect artists, audiences, and resources; to catalyze artistic activity; train and empower future art leaders; build audiences; and ground art as an agent of change.
Artspace is based in New Haven, Connecticut, and operates out of a 5,000 square foot storefront in a former Civil War-era furniture factory that anchors the city’s largest affordable housing complex. We’ve mounted group shows and solo projects that spark local/global dialogues, foster collaborations between artists and non-artists, support experimentation, defend radical expression, uplift teen voices, champion under-resourced voices, and encourage interdisciplinary exchange around some of the most urgent issues of our time. Over the past decade, these projects have addressed racial bias in the Criminal Justice system (Arresting Patterns, 2015), the jettisoning of worker rights (A new job to un-work at, 2017), Land Justice (Paying Homage: Soil + Site), and our individual and collective resiliency (with the art and healthcare commissions, WellBeing).
Artspace is best known for its annual City-Wide Open Studios festival, now entering in its 23rd year. It features 400+ artists, and is the largest convening of visual artists in Connecticut. It encompasses both a traditional work space open-house as well as the “Alternative Space”, a unique, sprawling pop-up in a vacant commercial or industrial space secured through partnerships with local landlords and city government. Theses spaces, which feature hundreds of temporary installations and site-responsive commissioned works, have included The Goffe Street Armory, The Pirelli Building, The New Haven Register printing plant, the Smoothie Building, and most recently, the Yale West Campus, in the last remaining unrenovated building in what was once Bayer Pharmaceutical’s headquarters in West Haven, Connecticut.
This summer, Artspace will mark the 20th anniversary of its Summer Apprenticeship Program, offering under-resourced youth access to tools and skills that unleash their power as cultural producers. The program was launched with Sol LeWitt and has hosted dynamic lead artists including Nona Faustine, Shih Chieh Huang, Titus Kaphar, Roberto Lugo, Wardell Milan, and Jean Shin.
Artspace is supported by state art funding from the CT Office of the Arts/Department of Economic and Community Development, a state agency funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Recent funders have included CT Humanities, Foundation for Contemporary Art, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, and the Wingate Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Board of Directors and Friends of Artspace, and generous artists who contribute to an annual benefit art auction.
The next auction takes place April 25, 2020; tickets and information here.