The Vera List Center Prize Conference looks at the urgent and necessary work of the recipient of the third Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics, Brazilian artist Maria Thereza Alves, and the five Prize Finalists: the London-based interdisciplinary research agency Forensic Architecture; the artist coalition Gulf Labor; House of Natural Fiber (HONF), a new media arts laboratory in Yogyakarta, Indonesia; IsumaTV, a collaborative multimedia platform for indigenous filmmakers and media organization in Canada; and MadeYouLook, an artist collective based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Named in honor of New School trustee Vera G. List (1908–2002), the prize reflects The New School’s commitment to take intellectual, political and creative risks to bring about positive change. This commitment goes back to the university’s founding in 1919 as a forum for progressive American thinkers and the creation in 1933 of the University in Exile as a refuge for scholars persecuted in Nazi Germany.

The Vera List Center Prize 2016–2018 is bestowed on Brazilian artist Maria Thereza Alves for her ongoing project Seeds of Change. The prize recipient is honored with an exhibition of the winning project, an international conference, deep and scholarly engagement by New School students and faculty, a publication, the award—a sculpture by Yoko Ono—the financial reward, and a New York City residency. The programs and texts that constitute the first section of the 2016–2018 Prize Companion include texts both by and related to the prize recipient, Maria Thereza Alves:

Maria Thereza Alves, A Botany of Colonization
Carin Kuoni and Amanda Parmer, Sites as Citations of New York’s Colonial Past in Ballast
Marisa Prefer, Transcending Movements: Weeds as Queering Species Boundaries
Jean Fisher, The Importance of Words and Action
Saidiya Hartman, The Belly of the World: A Note on Black Women’s Labors

The second portion of the Companion includes the nomination statements for the five Prize Finalists, provided by the group’s nominators:

Forensic Architecture, nominated by Mariam Ghani
Gulf Labor, nominated by Joanna Warsza
House of Natural Fibers, nominated by Eungie Joo
IsumaTV, nominated by Candice Hopkins
MadeYouLook, nominated by Nontobeko Ntombela

Additional materials include the checklist for the Prize recipient’s exhibition, related Public Events and the Prize Conference Program.