Photo by Jessi Melcer (2023)
Christina Vassallo is the new Alice & Harris Weston Director of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati (March 2023).
From 2020 - early 2023 Christina served as Executive Director of The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) in Philadelphia, where she redefined a living laboratory that collaborates with artists to make and present new artwork to the public. During the COVID-related shutdowns that began weeks after her start date, Christina kept her staff fully intact, developed new ways of working together, continued an ambitious program calendar (including residencies and culminating exhibitions by Samara Golden, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Jayson Musson, Rose B. Simpson, and Henry Taylor, among others), and cultivated new board members. Additional accomplishments include securing the Mellon Foundation’s Art Museum Futures Fund to develop a permanent collection care plan and support DEAI initiatives; creating an earned revenue initiative that supports artists through mission-related limited editions; designing inclusive processes for a strategic plan, development assessment, mission rewrite, and building feasibility study; and advocating for the region’s cultural sector when city and state funding were at risk.
Her leadership at FWM was supported by her work as a founding member of the Philadelphia Collaborative Arts Consortium, a member of the national association of Contemporary Art Museum Directors (CAMD), a 2022 German Marshall Fellow of the German Marshall Fund, and a 2019-2020 cohort member of National Arts Strategies’ Chief Executive Program. She was also a member of the Arts & Culture Task Force, which identified policy and budgetary recommendations for Philadelphia City Council to best respond to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.
From 2014 - 2019 Christina was Executive + Artistic Director of SPACES in Cleveland, where she provided creative direction and oversaw operations for one of the longest-running alternative art organizations in the country. Her most notable SPACES initiatives include launching a capital campaign, spearheading a renovation and relocation project, expanding outreach initiatives, developing 2 grant opportunities that distributed $85,000 to 15 Cuyahoga County artists per year, and curating critically acclaimed issue-oriented group exhibitions. While in Cleveland, she was an ex oficio board member of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Contemporary Art Society and a contributor to Cuyahoga Arts & Culture's Support for Artists Planning Team.
Before running SPACES, Christina was based in NYC, working as Executive Director of Flux Factory, where she set the course for a thriving institution comprised of an international artist residency program, acclaimed exhibitions program, and unconventional education initiatives. Additionally, she has curated exhibitions for Everson Museum of Art, Jersey City Museum, NURTUREart, Lafayette College, and New Haven University. Christina also served as Programming Associate of Culture Push, Associate Director of Kinz, Tillou + Feigen Gallery, and Assistant Curator at American Federation of Arts. She holds a B.A. in art history and an M.A. in nonprofit visual arts management from NYU.
christinavassallo[at]gmail[dot]com