September 5, 2023 | 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Welcome to ArtTable’s 2023 Annual Leadership Series panel discussion on Tuesday, September 5 in New York City! “The Future of Gender Based Organizations” engages the arts and business communities in a critical examination of how organizations dedicated to addressing existing gender-based disparities in wages and opportunities can continue to research, advocate, network, and address inequities—particularly as the culture moves forward into a more evolved understanding of gender identity. In the panel discussion, we will consider the value and meaning of gender-based organizations, their changing roles, purposes, and goals, and the context and consequences of leading such organizations in a changing political and cultural moment. The program will continue to establish ArtTable as an advocate for equality within and beyond the art community. Our panel features: Alyssa Nitchun, Executive Director of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art; Subha V. Barry, President of Seramount; Alicin Williamson, Chief Diversity and Culture Officer, Yahoo!; and Jessica L. Porter, Lila Harnett Executive Director of ArtTable. Sociologist Dr. Gillian Gualtieri will moderate this important discussion. We’ll open with time to network and socialize over refreshments and light bites.
This signature ArtTable program was initially launched in 2016, and since its inception, the series has been featured during Armory Show week, fostering engaging conversations among prominent women-identifying and nonbinary professionals. It has provided a platform for these influential voices to discuss the most pressing and relevant topics within our industries. We are proud to partner with the Women’s Forum of New York, a leading organization that is similarly committed to equity, advocacy, and community engagement. Women’s Forum Members can register here.
The program will be moderated by Dr. Gillian Gualtieri, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Barnard College, with panelists:
- Subha V. Barry | President of Seramount
- Alyssa Nitchun | Executive Director of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art
- Alicin Williamson | Chief Diversity and Culture Officer of Yahoo!
- Jessica L. Porter | Lila Harnett Executive Director of ArtTable
Admission:
- ArtTable & Women’s Forum Members – $35
- Non-members/Guests – $45
Not an ArtTable member? Join today!
This program is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
About the Speakers
Subha V. Barry is a C-suite leader and an Advisor who brings a unique perspective on the alignment of corporate culture to talent strategy and business results. As a transformational change agent, she has a proven record of identifying and accelerating new business creation, driving sales, and increasing profitability. She is president of Seramount, now part of EAB. Seramount is a strategic professional services firm dedicated to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. Here, she drives the firm’s vision, strategy, and business development.
Prior to Seramount, Subha was SVP and Chief Diversity Officer at Freddie Mac, where she served on the firm’s management committee and led their Foundation. During her 20+ years at Merrill Lynch, Subha was a Managing Director and the company’s first Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion, driving strategy, infrastructure and execution with a lens on both global and local community.
She has taught Gender Policy at Columbia University and speaks passionately about the ability to drive innovation by embracing diversity and creating a culture of inclusion. She serves on a number of boards aligned with her passions—education, cancer research, and women’s advancement.
A native of India, Subha holds a BA from Bombay University and an MBA and MS in Accounting from Rice University. She enjoys golfing, reading poetry and rallying for social change. She has two grown children and lives in Naples, Florida and New Hope, PA with her husband.
Alyssa Nitchun is Executive Director of The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (LLMA), where she oversees the Museum’s many initiatives and long-term growth. Alyssa was the first queer woman to be selected by the Board to lead LLMA and in her two years as Director, she is already ushering the Museum into the future, building a queer, revelatory, radically affirming art Museum, that centers people and collective meaning making. Prior to her appointment at LLMA, Alyssa had a career in cultural consulting and nonprofits, spending time advising artists and cultural institutions on realizing thought-provoking projects in the Middle East and Europe.
Alyssa also served as Acting Executive Director at the public art organization Creative Time, where she spent nearly seven years working in development, communications, and team management. She previously oversaw Institutional Giving for the public media organization, StoryCorps and was the Director of Development for the CUNY Graduate Center’s Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies. Alyssa has held multiple creative positions in the worlds of art, fashion, and music, and received an MA in Gender Politics with a focus in Queer theory from New York University. In her current role at The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Alyssa is expanding the Museum’s purpose beyond its position as an art museum, into a hub for community and creative expression, actively shaping a better future for LGBTQIA+ people with artists leading the way.
Alicin Reidy Williamson is a global diversity and strategy executive. Her experience includes being a Managing Principal at strategic policy firm, The Raben Group, SVP of Public Affairs and Corporate Responsibility for MTV Networks and Viacom, Chief Inclusion Officer at Endeavor and she now serves as Chief Diversity and Culture Officer at Yahoo!. In her current role, Alicin leads global diversity and inclusion, employee engagement and culture for the company. In her partnerships, she’s developing the external relationships that will increase Yahoo’s diversity footprint as a thought leader in this space. Alicin currently sits as a board member of The Dalton School, She Should Run, March on Washington Film Festival and is an advisor for the Council on Juvenile and Family Court Judges and chairs a joint collaboration of veteran service organizations, Hire Heroes and Operation Homefront.
Jessica L. Porter is ArtTable’s Lila Harnett Executive Director. She joined ArtTable as the executive director in 2018, after 4 years on the Board of Directors and 8 years of membership. Porter is responsible for developing the long-range strategy of ArtTable, providing leadership and oversight in fundraising to meet financial goals, and directing communications and brand management. In 2020, she was the first to assume the name of ArtTable’s founder as the Lila Harnett Executive Director.
Prior to this role, she was the Executive Director of the New York Artists Equity Association, Inc (NYAEA)—a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1947. In 2001, Porter launched Porter Advisory, working as an independent curator, creating exhibitions and advising artists on career advancement. From 2006 to 2017, Porter founded and directed Porter Contemporary, a Chelsea art gallery, where she was responsible for strategy, business development and market growth, marketing, communications, and talent acquisition. Porter has spoken on CNBC about art collecting and investment in emerging artists, to the Harvard Business Women’s Association about starting an art collection, and has participated in panel discussions on topics including art and music, women in the art industry, art and social justice, contemporary visions of Picasso and art collecting. Porter has served as part of the Leadership Advisory Board for the Girl Scouts of Greater New York’s annual Women of Distinction Fundraiser. She also enjoys coaching little league softball and supporting girls in sports. Porter has a Bachelor’s in Art History and French Language and Literature from the University of Delaware and a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland.
Gillian Gualtieri, PhD, is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Barnard College, where she teaches classes in the sociology of art, race and ethnicity, gender, organizations, and culture. Previously, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University and a postdoctoral fellow at New York University. In 2018, Gillian received her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Gillian has published research on symbolic compliance and sexual harassment on college campuses (in Sociological Forum), inequality in the art world (Poetics; SNAAP Report), and racial and gender inequality in fine dining (Social Problems; Poetics). Gualtieri is the lead researcher on ArtTable’s 2023 Survey on Working in the Arts. Gilliangualtieri.com
Kelly Freeman directs AMP’s suite of art fairs, sourcing and placing domestic and international galleries. She develops special projects and exhibitions – opportunities to appeal to a high end, collecting audience, shaping unique spaces and events to retain visitors year after year. Kelly also oversees all marketing and communications, focusing on reaching the right audience for each event. Kelly also consults across AMP immersive events business, working to develop strong content and drive quality attendance.
Jacqueline is a leading Auctioneer and auction house specialist, who holds the position of Vice-President, Specialist in the Contemporary Art Department at Sotheby’s New York . She was previously Auctioneer and Vice-President, Director of Post-War & Contemporary Art at Bonhams Auctioneers. In her five year tenure, Jacqueline was involved in some of the company’s most important sales and events, including the previously unseen single-owner sale ‘Kusama: The Collection of the late Dr Teruo Hirose’; the sale of the first mural by Keith Haring to ever come to market; the department’s first curated selling exhibition, and the exhibition of the collection of visual arts patron and hip-hop icon Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest.
Christine Berry and Martha Campbell opened Berry Campbell Gallery in the heart of Chelsea on the ground floor in 2013. The gallery has a fine-tuned program representing artists of post-war American painting that have been overlooked or neglected, particularly women of Abstract Expressionism. Since its inception, the gallery has developed a strong emphasis in research to bring to light artists overlooked due to age, race, gender, or geography. This unique perspective has been increasingly recognized by curators, collectors, and the press.
Dr. Tania Aparicio (she/her) is a full-time lecturer in the Arts Administration Program at Teachers College-Columbia University. Using ethnographic and archival methods, her research has focused on the study of cultural production, cultural organizations, and cultural workers–with particular attention to the dynamics of inequality in art worlds. In particular, she has conducted a comparative investigation of the effects of unionization in arts organizations and how it shapes racialized and gendered relations in the workplace. Her research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, Fulbright Program, Institute for Critical Social Inquiry, and Janey Program in Latin American Studies. At The New School she completed her doctoral degree thanks to a Dean’s fellowship and a dissertation award.
Partner LaKeisha M.A. Caton is a member of Pryor Cashman’s Labor + Employment and Litigation Groups, and combines her comprehensive litigation background with a focus on employment-related matters to bring results to clients across the globe. Having represented both management and executives in discrimination and harassment cases, LaKeisha brings her extensive knowledge of the law as well as her familiarity with the strategies often adopted by the opposition to every engagement. She leverages her comprehensive experience with federal, state, and local discrimination law and her background in litigation and dispute resolution to achieve favorable outcomes on behalf of her clients.
Gillian is a sociologist of inequality, art, and work. In 2018, she received her PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, where she wrote a dissertation focused on understanding how gender and ethno-racial inequality shape the work experiences of cultural entrepreneurs, especially chefs, under the direction of two of the leading scholars in feminist theory and work. Alongside her dissertation research, Gillian worked closely with several campus offices to conduct program evaluation research related to sexual harassment and sexual violence prevention education on campus. After completing her PhD, she was a Dean’s Fellow at NYU, where she continued her research focused on inequality and artistic labor and completed several consulting projects for the university focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion recruitment and retention efforts at the university.
