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.
The Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice is excited to congratulate the 2026 Arts Leadership Praxis cohort at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
The Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice (EADJ) is excited to congratulate the 2026 Arts Leadership Praxis cohort at the Studio Museum in Harlem!
The participants include Nashville Curator, Micahel J. Ewing, along with Camille Brown, Jadine Collingwood, Grace Deveney) , Destinee Filmore, Annissa Malvoisin, Mia Matthias, and Delphine Sims.
Michael J. Ewing is an Associate Curator at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, and previously worked with EADJ as the Assistant Curator for Dr. Campos-Pons during EADJ’s exhibitions and public program contributions to the 2023 Tennessee Triennial.
The 2026 Arts Leadership Praxis cohort will be the first to convene in the Studio Museum’s new purpose-built home. As the program continues to evolve, its 2026 participants will engage in conversations and seminars with renowned arts professionals, take part in studio visits with notable artists, receive individual mentorship, and attend in-person multi-day workshops in New York, Los Angeles, and Detroit.
Read the full announcement article by the Studio Museum here.
EADJ and its Founder, Dr. María Magdalena Campos-Pons, extend congratulations to Vanderbilt's Department of Art's Senior Class
The Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice and its Founder, Dr. María Magdalena Campos-Pons extend their congratulations to Vanderbilt's Department of Art Senior Class.
The Senior Year Experience is an immersive final chapter for Vanderbilt art majors where they experience an art-filled weekend in New York City (during their fall semester); one-on-one critiques with prominent visiting artists, curators, writers; and other creative professionals; culminating in a showcase of their thesis exhibitions and projects. In addition to their exhibition, the students are given the opportunity to compete in the annual Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award juried competition for a chance to be the recipient of one of two travel grants.
This year’s showcase, In No Particular Order: Senior Show 2026, features the work of Caitlin Nitschke, Kira Tannenbaum, Lin Morales, Dorothy Chen, Paige Restel, Megan Grosse, Remi Marcus, Isaac Bevin Boakye, Izabella Burghardt, and Rubric Barredo.
EADJ is excited to share a review from Art Margins covering details about the Fall 2025 exhibition at Begonia Labs, "Prefabricating Solidarity"
The Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice (EADJ) is excited to share a review from Art Margins covering details about the Fall 2025 exhibition at Begonia Labs, "Prefabricating Solidarity: IMS-Žeželj Between Yugoslavia, Cuba, and Angola". The review, written by Nicoletta Rousseva, covers the exhibition’s rendition at Begonia Labs from August-December 2025 as well as the exhibition's first rendition at the Museum of African Art in Belgrade which concluded in May 2025.
Prefabricating Solidarity was conceived and organized by a collaborative curatorial and authorial team, including Vladimir Kulić, Vesna Pavlović , Jelica Jovanović, Fredo Rivera, Ana Knežević, Emilia Epštajn.
Exhibition and Graphic Design by Antun Sevšek and Damir Gamulin. The technical implementation by Ivan Vukdragović (Belgrade installation) and Taylor Raboin (Nashville installation).
Read the full article from Art Margins here.
EADJ Founder, Dr. María Magdalena Campos-Pons chosen to create trophies for the ARTnews Awards
EADJ Founder, Dr. María Magdalena Campos-Pons was chosen to create a group of bronze trophies for the ARTnews Awards. The trophies were given to this year's winners of the ARTnews Awards:
Claudia Alarcón & Silät for Emerging Artist, Wafaa Bilal for Established Artist, Ralph Lemon for Lifetime Achievement, Jack Whitten for Historical Artist, “Legacies: Asian American Art Movements” at 80WSE for Best Thematic Museum Show, and “Bowls, Boxes, Plates & Vessels” at Parker Gallery for Best Gallery Group Show.
Dr. Campos-Pons won the 2024 ARTnews Award for Lifetime Achievement in recognition of her Brooklyn Museum show. She created the new bronze trophies with the help of the Modern Art Foundry based in Queens, New York.
Dr. Campos-Pons newly designed trophies are based on a flower given to her by another artist in 1990.
“Living with the plant for those many years, waiting for the blossom get to happen was a lesson that inscribed in me such an admiration about almost a parallel to the journey of an artist,” she told ARTnews. “You work, you work, you water your ideas, you take. You keep working. Just because the love of making it and if you’re passionate enough and consistent, you’re going to see the blossom.”
Read the full article about the ARTnews Awards here.
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 is excited to share an interview from Art Africa Magazine covering details about the Fall 2025 exhibition at Begonia Labs, Prefabricating Solidarity: IMS-Žeželj Between Yugoslavia, Cuba, and Angola.
The Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice (EADJ) and its Founder, Dr. María Magdalena Campos-Pons, are excited to share an interview from Art Africa Magazine covering details about the Fall 2025 exhibition at Begonia Labs, Prefabricating Solidarity: IMS-Žeželj Between Yugoslavia, Cuba, and Angola.
The interview with Vesna Pavlović, Vanderbilt Faculty and Chair for Vanderbilt Department of Art tells about how the exhibition was conceived by a collaborative team including Vladimir Kulić, Jelica Jovanović, Fredo Rivera, Ana Knežević, and Emilia Epštajn. The article shares further details about the making of the exhibition and how it demonstrates ways that prefabrication, research, and fieldwork can trace a living history of the Non-Aligned Movement.
Learn more about the "Prefabricating Solidarity" exhibition 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)