From May 2018 – September 2022, I was the Executive Director of Vox Populi in Philadelphia, PA, a non-profit gallery, performance venue, and artist collective that was established in 1988 — enduring to this day as one of the nation’s longest running artist-run spaces,

As Executive Director, I worked with a 12 member Board of Directors and an Artist Collective of up to 25 members at a time — a mix of visual and performing artists, writers, film/theater-makers, community organizers, and activists — to oversee an ambitious schedule of exhibitions, live-events, community engagement programs, and fundraising activities. During my leadership, the venue consisted of four visual art galleries, a Community Engagement space, and a Black Box performance space located on the third floor of a historic warehouse building just north of Center City. Annually, we hosted over 30 exhibitions, upwards of 80 programs, a curatorial fellowship, various partnership events, and fundraisers.

At Vox Populi I had the opportunity to motivate and guide the collective, an annual curatorial fellow, and numerous other artists selected via Open Calls through the installation and exhibition of their artwork, including projects by Abigail Lucien, Stephanie Powell, Jova Lynne, The Institute of Queer Ecology, Chelsea A. Flowers, Cameron Granger, and Yaloo. I also had the opportunity to curate my own exhibitions, including shows by KC Crow Maddux, Tura Oliviera, Black Quantum Futurism, and the gallery-spanning group exhibition Future Ecologies, a group exhibition funded by The Philadelphia Foundation. Working with artist/organizer Malachi Lily on The Children of Sirius series of exhibitions and performances presented as part of their Fellowship was a particular highlight of my time at Vox that you can read about, here.

In 2021, I also organized the exhibition Still Doing Life: 22 Lifers, 25 Years Later in collaboration with the authors of a publication of the same name by Barb Toews & Howard Zehr (published by The New Press) that debuted at The Free Library. The project consisted of 22 interviews and pairs of photographs taken 25 years apart of individuals serving life without the possibility of parole sentences in Pennsylvania prisons. The exhibition was funded by The Art for Justice Fund and traveled to numerous venues after opening in Philadelphia. Read more about the project, here.

In addition to my creative and community-outreach projects, my role was largely administrative and was responsible for all financial matters, including book-keeping, grant-writing, and fundraising. During my tenure, I successfully earned grants from The Pew Center for Culture & Heritage, The William Penn Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and several others.

Finally, on the level of governance and strategic direction, while at Vox I focused on developing a membership and board that better reflected the diversity of the city in which it exists through such gestures as eliminating member dues, launching open calls for board service, and hosting city-wide info sessions. I produced new opportunities for artists working in socially/civically-engaged ways and successfully guided the organization through the worst years of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic I managed to maintain programing while also getting involved in arts advocacy, re-positioning the organization as an unwavering champion of both racial and economic equity in the arts through a number of grassroots efforts.

Below is a slideshow of just about 100 of countless images documenting numerous exhibitions and events held at Vox Populi during my time as Executive Director.