Not For Tourists is an alternative guide to New York City's contemporary art scene. In each <H>ART-edition, NY-based curator Niels Van Tomme highlights a non-profit cultural organization. Ranging from the well established to the marginal, from the intellectual to the politically engaged, Not For Tourists leads through the artistic heart of the Big Apple. In this episode, an interview with Carin Kuoni, director of the Vera List Center, the city's only organization entirely dedicated to investigating the intersection of art and politics.

The Vera List Center for Art and Politics investigates the role of art and culture within society and their relationship to the sociopolitical conditions in which they are created. Are there any such discernible conditions related to New York City specifically?

Carin Kuoni: "Of course, but while our programs regularly examine local conditions, the real question is how to relate the local to other locales, and how to speak of correlations that transcend the arbitrariness of geographic givens.
In New York, among the rawest forces at play are immigration, real estate and capitalism. These in turn lead to a heightened awareness of space, purpose, and time - where from, where to, and why. Since Mayor Bloomberg was elected in 2002, New York has been run like a for-profit corporation according to one criterion: profitability. This has meant the gradual dissolution of the public sphere into a hybrid private-public conglomerate, the conscription of any public space to specific usage so that no area is left undefined, the shrinking cultural and economic diversity of New Yorkers where the poorest earn 2 cents for every dollar that the richest make, and a concerted effort to establish New York as a brand that so often is evidence of the disappearance of precisely those qualities that make up a brand. Such developments are not unique to New York and, granted, cannot exclusively be assigned to Bloomberg. Yet as subject matter they appear particularly clearly in the works of cultural practitioners here."

Each year, the Center works with a theme and collects artists, scholars, activists, as well as cultural and political leaders to address this chosen topic from a variety of viewpoints. This year's subject is ‘Speculating on Change' in response to Obama's famous call to "change we can believe in." Why is it important to tackle such topical subject matter?

Kuoni: "Precisely because these are issues of broad general concern to which artists can bring distinct, unique perspectives. Their contributions are particularly valuable when seen within a chorus of equally precise insights by practitioners from other fields. Which is not to say that we ‘collect' these people but rather provide a platform for some of their voices.
The annual topics become portraits of our times, and touch on some of the concerns shared by many. For instance, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared George W. Bush's second election legal, it seemed that the psychological, legal and religious concept of forgiveness might provide the tools to address circumstances that by many were considered unjust. In the ‘Considering Forgiveness' cycle we looked at 9/11 memorials, the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa, even land reclamation programs.
Artists are uniquely disposed to articulate with clarity the complexities of a given situation and to both assess its fundamental characteristic and examine implications for other situations or times."

Started in 1992, the Center was initiated at a time when sociopolitical discourse within an arts context was rare. Today, however, many mainstream institutions and museums in the city are actively involved in this dialog. In which way has the Center's role shifted over the years?

Kuoni: "Originally, the Center focused on the art world as such. Panels abounded on cultural policies, censorship, identity politics, the NEA, the East Village scene vs. the art establishment, and similarly critical assessments of the system of artistic production.
The field has widened dramatically since. Our main mandate today is to find out how an artistic practice advances a deeper understanding of some of the pressing issues in society-here and elsewhere-and how this knowledge leads to new forms of civic engagement. In order to probe deeply, we work curatorially, gathering a multitude of events around the annual theme.
The Center's position at The New School is also significant. This is a university that traditionally has prided itself on progressive thinking. We position ourselves at that moment where theory evolves into practice, and draw on The New School's engaged faculty for all our programs."

Imagine having carte blanche, what would you like to change about the New York art scene?

Kuoni: "A greater diversity of spaces that is not predicated on financial resources exclusively. A greater recognition of the shared ambitions and needs of and among cultural organizations, possibly leading to an alliance of alternative non-profits. Art residency programs, especially in policy and advocacy organizations. And a reduction of MoMA's admission price."

Niels VAN TOMME

‘Speculating on Change,' throughout 2010 at the Vera List Center. www.veralistcenter.org