The Art Pod

On this episode I speak with Tanya Morgan who is the Chief Operating Officer at Nicola Vassell Gallery. We talk about all the responsibilities of a COO at a contemporary art gallery and what are some of the most underutilized skills in gallery management. We also touch on her time as a Collections Manager at Concept NV, an art advisory firm she managed with Nicola Vassell, and what it’s like to work as the lead logistics director on numerous special projects like BLACK EYE and No Commission, and her work with Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz on the Dean Collection.

On this episode I speak with Jessica Porter who is the Executive Director of ArtTable. We talk about providing leadership and oversight in fundraising to meet financial goals, and directing communications and brand management to enhance ArtTable’s success. We also touch on how she launched Porter Advisory, an art advisory firm, and Porter Contemporary, a Chelsea art gallery, and how she balanced that with being a lawyer. We also delve into the future of gender-based organizations and pay equity in the arts.

On this episode I speak with Lydia Melamed Johnson who is the Executive Director of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) and The Photography Show. We talk about the newest edition of the fair opening on April 23, 2025, what it’s like running a photography fair, and what visitors can expect from this 2025 edition. We also talk about her time as the Partnerships and VIP Relations Officer for Paris Photo and Paris Photo New York presented with AIPAD, where she was the US representative on the Paris Photo team launching the postponed fair in the Americas and her role as Director at Robert Simon Fine Art.

On this episode I speak with Maëlle Ebelle who is the Director at Ceysson & Bénétière. We talk about her professional journey at the gallery from when she joined the team in May 2012 in Genève, to then relocating to Luxembourg, and finally landing at their New York Madison Avenue location. We also touch on her studies in France as well as upcoming exhibitions, Bao Vuong: The Waves’ Breathing and Dennis Osadebe: Forcing Connections at Ceysson & Bénétière.

In this episode I speak with Aki Carpenter who is RAA’s global Vice President and Chief Creative Officer. We talk about what it means to provide vision and creative direction on design projects, what it was like opening over ten award-winning museums and cultural institutions worldwide, her work on the upcoming Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, and her passion for working with issues- and mission-based institutions. We also talk about her passion project, Ripple Effect, a New Orleans based environmental education start-up dedicated to K-12 education about socio-ecological issues of climate change, and what it’s been like for her as a female leader in the design field.

In this episode I speak with Dr. Tenley Bick who is an associate professor of art history at Florida State University and an art historian of global modern and contemporary art, with special interests in post-WWII and contemporary European (especially Italian) and African art (continental and diasporic), with a focus on social art history and cultural geopolitics. We peel back the veil around working in academia and getting tenure and we chat about her new book Michelangelo Pistoletto: Figuration and Cultural Politics (Yale University Press, 2025), the first English-language scholarly monograph on the Italian artist. We also touch on her research for her second book, on contemporary art and visual postcoloniality in and around Italy, focused on works of art by contemporary Italian, Afro-Italian, and East African artists that address histories and legacies of Italian colonialism in Africa.

In this episode I speak with Maura Reilly about her role as the Director of the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, Zimmerli’s latest exhibitionIndigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always,which was curated by artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, as well as Reilly’s focus on redefining what it means to be an ‘activist institution’ and dedicating the Zimmerli’s programming to artists who have been historically marginalized. We also talk about her upcoming book,Museums and Social Justice: Towards Reckoning and Change,which will be released in September 2025 with Thames and Hudson. We cover everything from her time at the Brooklyn Museum where she launched the first exhibition and public programming space in the US devoted entirely to feminist art, Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, and the blockbuster exhibition Global Feminisms (which Reilly co-curated with Linda Nochlin) to being a maverick and making trouble.*This episode was recorded prior to the passing of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, who was a groundbreaking artist, curator, activist, and a fervent supporter of other artists and their legacies.

In this episode I speak with Elisabeth Sherman about her current role as the Senior Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Collections at the International Center of Photography (ICP), her newest exhibition To Conjure: New Archives in Recent Photography, and what she loved the most about working at the Whitney Museum of American Art. We cover everything from studying overseas, effectively managing a team, as well as amplifying marginalized voices and counteracting the weight of history written by and for men.

In this episode I speak with Noreen Khalid Ahmad who is the Vice President at ALMA Communications. We chat about what’s coming up at ALMA in 2025, her time at the Morgan Library & Museum, Sutton, Fitz & Co, and LaPlaca Cohen, as well as being the Associate Producer on the HBO Documentary, The Price of Everything. We also cover everything from crisis PR as well as what it takes to put together a successful PR campaign.

In this episode I speak with artist Beatrice Scaccia about her practice, how she investigates the illusions of beauty and constructions of appearance and the cultural links between feminine splendor and monstrosity in her work, and what inspires her. We also chat about her education and life in Italy, what made her want to come to New York and leave everything behind, and what it was like working for artists like Marilyn Minter and Jeff Koons.