Vera G. List’s philanthropic activities led to the creation of not only the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, but also a number of other art organizations, spaces, and initiatives across universities and cultural institutions, including the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Brown University’s List Art Center, and the Vera List Art Project at Lincoln Center.

Such spaces bear more than their founder’s name; they often embody the ethics, aesthetics, and vision of those who created them in explicit and tacit ways. But as philanthropy and art institutions face public scrutiny and increased calls for accountability, the role of philanthropists such as List is being questioned, reimagined, and addressed through new artist-driven and community-led organizations and initiatives.

As we celebrate our founder and chart new paths for the future of the Vera List Center, we look at art spaces emerging around us led by philanthropists and artists that take up the mantle of creating new spaces for experimenting with and experiencing art, but also make room for new ways of doing so. We consider not only the financial contributions of these individuals, but their values and vision for the future of art and society as reflected in the spaces they created for collective work at a moment of renewed hope and urgency for art and politics.

This conversation concludes Day One of the Vera List Center Forum 2022, focusing on the history of the VLC with a forward look at new artistic environments, with speakers Jane Hait, founder, Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA), Shani Peters, co-founder, The Black School, and Reuben Roqueñi, Director of Transformative Change Programs, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF), Center for Native Arts and Cultures. Kathy Goncharov and Carin Kuoni introduce the panel with a conversation on Vera G. List.