Professor Campos-Pons secures a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation
Dr. María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Art and Founder of the Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice research initiative, has secured a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to advance the work of the Engine.
Campos-Pons mentions that the grant will not only allow EADJ to continue advancing current projects, it will also allow her to think strategically to ensure the program’s longevity and introduce more collaborations. Moreover, She expresses her gratitude to the Mellon Foundation, the Vanderbilt Research Development and Support, her team at EADJ, present and past curators of EADJ, and all the participating artists that have worked with the EADJ research initiative.
EADJ and its Founder, Dr. María Magdalena Campos-Pons, extends congratulations to Ibrahim Mahama for being chosen as the most influential figure in ArtReview’s Power 100 for 2025
EADJ and its Founder, Dr. María Magdalena Campos-Pons, extends congratulations to Ibrahim Mahama for being chosen as the most influential figure in ArtReview’s Power 100 for 2025.
“Mahama’s practice extends far beyond the studio. Over the past decade, he has founded and sustained independent cultural spaces such as Red Clay Studio, the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art and Nkrumah Volini. These sites host residencies, educational programmes and public initiatives that support local and international artists. ArtReview highlights him as representative of a new generation of practitioners who are reimagining influence through institution-making, civic responsibility, and long-term cultural investment.” - Art Africa
In 2021, EADJ hosted a large-scale art installation by globally-renowned Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama at Fisk University. Part of his Occupation Series, the installation involved enveloping Fisk’s Little Theater in jute sacks collected from the markets of Ghana and circulated around the world as material for a series of artist interventions. The jute sacks used in Leaves of Grass 2012-2021 were sewn together through a massive communal effort in Nashville that involved Vanderbilt students and faculty, Fisk students and faculty, the McGruder Family Resource Center, and many other community members.
Read the full article about Ibrahim Mahama’s award here.
Learn more about Leaves of Grass 2012-2021installation here.
EADJ Extends Congratulations to Adam Szymczyk for being appointed Director of the Swiss Architecture Museum
EADJ and its Founder, Dr. María Magdalena Campos-Pons, extend congratulations to Adam Szymczyk for being appointed the next Director for the Swiss Architecture Museum.
Szymczyk has spent the past eight years as an independent curator in Zürich. From 2013- 2017, he served as artistic director for Documenta 14, which took place in Kassel and in Athens simultaneously. From 2002 - 2014, he was director and chief curator of Kunsthalle Basel, where he organized more than eighty exhibitions. He is a co-founder of Warsaw’s Foksal Gallery Foundation, established in 1997, and has also taught seminars at the gta Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture at ETH Zürich, at the Universities of Basel and Zürich, and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
Szymczyk has previously joined EADJ as a panelist for conversations around the future of museums in 2019 and in 2023 for EADJ programs within the Tennessee Triennial. Szymczyk along with Dr. Campos-Pons served as contributors for Beverly Buchanan: I Broke the House at Fisk University's Carl Van Vechten Art Gallery, which was on view from September 25, 2024 to March 1, 2025.
I Broke the House brings together a wide range of contemporary voices, artworks, and historical contexts. It critically engages with Buchanan’s exploration of the built environment, addressing themes of race, memory, and resistance. The exhibition emphasizes Buchanan’s ability to challenge traditional exhibition practices by reimagining the spaces that hold her work. Through her focus on eroded surfaces, vernacular dwellings, and marginalized histories, Buchanan provides a poignant commentary on the sociopolitical landscape of her time.
Read the full article about Adam Szymczyk directorial appointment here.
ARTnews Awards 2024 Lifetime Achievement: María Magdalena Campos-Pons
Professor Campos-Pons, Founder of the Engine for Art Democracy & Justice, wins the ARTnews Lifetime Achievement Award!
ARTnews Magazine and publications announced the ARTnews Awards, a new editorial project honoring excellence in art achievements at US art institutions. Winners were announced online on December 4th.
Over several months, ARTnews convened a world-class jury to determine the best exhibitions that opened in the US during the 2023–24 season (September 1, 2023–August 31, 2024). For its inaugural year, ARTnews honored museum, gallery, and nonprofit exhibitions in five categories, including three for one artist (or solo exhibition projects) and two for group exhibitions. The categories included Emerging Artist of the Year, Established Artist of the Year, Lifetime Achievement, Best Thematic Museum Show, and Best Gallery Group Show.
News Highlights: 2020
Press Release: “Vanderbilt University launches series on justice, healing with renowned artists and scholars” (Ann Marie Deer Owens, Vanderbilt University, Sep. 11, 2020)
Features:
“Urban Outlook: Art, Democracy and Justice in the South” (News Channel 5, Nashville, Nov. 23, 2020)
“Participate in Vanderbilt’s Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice” (Laura Hutson Hunter, Nashville Scene, Critics’ Pick, Sep. 2020)
“Artists Taking Over Billboards Across America” (Chadd Scott, Forbes, Arts, Oct. 8, 2020
“Artists Argue Art Can be an Engine for Democracy and Justice” (Clare Bratten, The Tennessee Tribune, Oct. 8, 2020)
“Discussing Justice and Healing through the ‘Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice” (The Narrative, Art Galleries at Black Studies, University of Texas, Oct. 2020)