The Remix welcomes Yulia Topchiy, Natasha Becker, and Paola Gallio, the amazing co-founders of Assembly Room, who staged 12 exhibitions, 16 performances, and monthly curatorial meetups in the gallery’s first year. They share their origin story—an arranged marriage—and how they fill a void for independent women curators. They didn’t think there was a need for another gallery so they created space and a home for independent curators: a commercial gallery with a nonprofit soul. The reasons why they made that choice includes finances as well as freedom, flexibility, and ownership over mission. They walk us through their Open Call platform, the gallery space vs the project space downstairs, what they’re looking for in a proposal, and their interest in mentorship, collaboration, and family. Toward the end of the conversation, their kinship with artist-run spaces becomes clear and there are shout outs to Spring Break, Pioneer Works, Canada gallery, A.I.R. gallery, and others who paved the way for their new model. We end on day jobs and dreams for the future. Picture utopia on a beach.
Assembly Room is an art gallery and space for independent women curators to achieve success through community. We believe in coming together to collaborate, break the rules, defy the status quo, and create compelling art, exhibitions, and experiences.Assembly Room’s three founding curators are: Natasha Becker, Paola Gallio, Yulia Topchiy.
assemblyroom.nyc
@assemblyroomnyc
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The Remix welcomes Yulia Topchiy, Natasha Becker, and Paola Gallio, the amazing co-founders of Assembly Room, who staged 12 exhibitions, 16 performances, and monthly curatorial meetups in the gallery’s first year. They share their origin story—an arranged marriage—and how they fill a void for independent women curators. They didn’t think there was a need for another gallery so they created space and a home for independent curators: a commercial gallery with a nonprofit soul. The reasons why they made that choice includes finances as well as freedom, flexibility, and ownership over mission. They walk us through their Open Call platform, the gallery space vs the project space downstairs, what they’re looking for in a proposal, and their interest in mentorship, collaboration, and family. Toward the end of the conversation, their kinship with artist-run spaces becomes clear and there are shout outs to Spring Break, Pioneer Works, Canada gallery, A.I.R. gallery, and others who paved the way for their new model. We end on day jobs and dreams for the future. Picture utopia on a beach.
Assembly Room is an art gallery and space for independent women curators to achieve success through community. We believe in coming together to collaborate, break the rules, defy the status quo, and create compelling art, exhibitions, and experiences.Assembly Room’s three founding curators are: Natasha Becker, Paola Gallio, Yulia Topchiy.
assemblyroom.nyc
@assemblyroomnyc
Katherine Gressel, Independent curator, artist and writer
The Remix Podcast
57 minutes 16 seconds
5 years ago
Katherine Gressel, Independent curator, artist and writer
A native New Yorker, Katherine Gressel began her artistic and curatorial career responding to changes in the city. She dove into curation whole-heartedly when she found it combined many of her interests and now she finds herself a curator/educator/administrator who makes a living as an artist. How did she flip the script? During her conversation with The Remix, Katherine discussed her role at Old Stone House (the sight of the Battle of Brooklyn during the Revolutionary War) where she facilitates site-specific projects to make local history relevant to a contemporary and globally-minded general audience. She talks programming; community work; the challenges of working in a multi-purpose space; funding as an independent curator; how she loves to start every project with a space and a community rather than a specific topic; catalyst vs curator; grad school; and painting commissions. She talks about her deliberate effort to blur the lines between the different facets of her life and make them sustainable as a whole.(Shout out to Natalia Nakazawa in this episode!)*****NOTE: Since this podcast was recorded, Katherine and the Old Stone house received the big NYSCA grant she mentions! Congrats, Katherine and Old Stone House! Check out their website theoldstonehouse.org and @oldstonehousebklyn for their 2020 schedule.*****
Katherine Gressel is a New York‐based curator, artist, and writer focused on site‐specific art. Since 2016 she has served as the inaugural Contemporary Curator at the Old Stone House & Washington Park (OSH), a nonprofit historic house and community center in Park Slope, Brooklyn. At OSH she has focused on how contemporary artists can help make local and national history relevant, and how OSH's unique space can inspire and incubate emerging artists. Katherine first started organizing exhibitions at OSH in 2009 with her original Brooklyn Utopias series exploring artists' visions for ideal cities.
In addition to organizing over ten major exhibitions to date at the Old Stone House, Katherine has curated for FIGMENT, No Longer Empty, St. Francis College, and Brooklyn Historical Society, and was the 2016 NARS Foundation emerging curator. She was selected for the 2015 Independent Curators International (ICI) Curatorial Intensive in New Orleans. Katherine's exhibitions have been recognized by the New York Times, Time Out New York, Hyperallergic, News 12 Brooklyn, and DNAInfo. She has written and presented on public and community art issues for Createquity, Americans for the Arts, and Public Art Dialogue, among others. Katherine also served as Programs Manager at Smack Mellon Gallery from 2010-2014, and has worked and consulted for diverse nonprofits. She earned her BA in art from Yale and MA in arts administration from Columbia.
katherinegressel.com theoldstonehouse.org @oldstonehousebklyn @eventpaintingbykatherine
The Remix Podcast
The Remix welcomes Yulia Topchiy, Natasha Becker, and Paola Gallio, the amazing co-founders of Assembly Room, who staged 12 exhibitions, 16 performances, and monthly curatorial meetups in the gallery’s first year. They share their origin story—an arranged marriage—and how they fill a void for independent women curators. They didn’t think there was a need for another gallery so they created space and a home for independent curators: a commercial gallery with a nonprofit soul. The reasons why they made that choice includes finances as well as freedom, flexibility, and ownership over mission. They walk us through their Open Call platform, the gallery space vs the project space downstairs, what they’re looking for in a proposal, and their interest in mentorship, collaboration, and family. Toward the end of the conversation, their kinship with artist-run spaces becomes clear and there are shout outs to Spring Break, Pioneer Works, Canada gallery, A.I.R. gallery, and others who paved the way for their new model. We end on day jobs and dreams for the future. Picture utopia on a beach.
Assembly Room is an art gallery and space for independent women curators to achieve success through community. We believe in coming together to collaborate, break the rules, defy the status quo, and create compelling art, exhibitions, and experiences.Assembly Room’s three founding curators are: Natasha Becker, Paola Gallio, Yulia Topchiy.
assemblyroom.nyc
@assemblyroomnyc
