ArtTable’s 2023 Annual Benefit
On April 4, 2023, our community came together at NeueHouse for ArtTable’s Annual Benefit & Award Ceremony honoring New Leadership Awardee Deana Haggag—arts administrator, cultural worker, executive leader, and strategic advisor. The award itself, Seven Square Inches of Water, is a limited-edition artwork by Maya Lin created to benefit the “What Is Missing?” project. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Natalie Diaz, presented the award, and speakers included Marcela Guerrero, DeMartini Family Curator, The Whitney Museum of American Art; ArtTable Executive Director Jessica L. Porter; and ArtTable Board President Jennifer Scanlan.
Members of the Board, ArtTable members, supporters, sponsors, friends, and Fellow Alumna had a chance to enjoy the inspiration of particularly meaningful speeches about creativity and leadership on a beautiful spring evening in the city that never sleeps.
ArtTable’s Annual Benefit & Award Ceremony gathers hundreds of women in the visual arts to celebrate the leadership of exemplary women in the field and to support ArtTable’s ongoing work to advance the work of women working in the visual arts. For the first time in the organization’s over 40-year history, ArtTable held Benefits in both New York and Los Angeles, recognizing the leadership of women on both coasts, and bringing together ArtTable’s national membership across the country.
There is still time to give! Please consider making a fully tax-deductible contribution.
Media Gallery
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2023 New York Benefit Co-Chairs
Sarah Arison
Suhaly Bautista-Carolina
Jane Hait
2023 New York Benefit Supporters
Silver Supporters
Anonymous
Sarah Arison
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Bronze Supporter
Agnes Gund
Member Friend Supporters
Ruth Adams
Peg Alston
Naomi Beckwith
Sylvia Brown
Courtney Maier Burbela
Daisy Charles
Kaitlin Filley
Donna Harkavy
Karla Harwich
Dr. Julia P. Herzberg
Barbara T. Hoffman, Esq.
Heather Hubbs
Susan Jacobson
Sandra Lerner
Kimberly Macleod
Sheila McDaniel
Jennifer Rissler
Whitney Alice Rutter
Leadership Supporters
Carol Cole Levin
Executive Supporters
Sue Ariza
Annette Blaugrund
Fairfax Dorn
First Republic Bank
Thelma Golden
Hannah Gottlieb-Graham
Nohra Haime
Jane Hait
Joan Shigekawa
Lowery Stokes Sims
Jamie & Emmett Watson
Bahia Ramos
Ellen Taubman
Yaél Weitz
About the Honorees
New Leadership Awardee
Deana Haggag (she/her) is an arts administrator, cultural worker, executive leader, and strategic advisor. She is currently a Program Officer in Arts and Culture at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Prior to joining the foundation in May 2021, she was the President & CEO of United States Artists, a national arts funding organization based in Chicago, IL. During her tenure, USA saw unprecedented growth, expanding its Fellowship award program, launching the Berresford Prize, and developing coalition efforts to advance support for individual artists most notably including Artist Relief, a $25 million COVID-19 emergency fund, and Disability Futures, a multi-disciplinary initiative supporting disabled creative practitioners. Before joining USA in February 2017, she was the Executive Director of The Contemporary, a nomadic and non-collecting art museum in Baltimore, MD, for four years.
Read More About Deana Haggag
In addition to her leadership roles, Deana is a strategic advisor to cultural foundations and philanthropic initiatives including the Ruth Foundation for the Arts and Chanel Next Prize. She also lectures extensively, consults on various art initiatives, contributes to cultural publications, and has taught at institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and Towson University. She is on the Boards of The Underground Museum and Pillars Fund, Artistic Director’s Council of Prospect.5 and Advisory Council of Recess, and Editorial Advisory of Hope & Dread: Tectonic Shifts In Power In Art, a documentary series examining recent clashes of power in culture.
She has completed the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program in 2020, Stanford Impact Program for Arts Leaders in 2018, and was a Salzburg Global Fellow for Young Cultural Innovators in 2015. Among other honors, she was most recently named a 2020 YBCA 100 Honoree. She has been profiled or featured in Artnet News, CNN, Cultured Magazine, The Cut, Departures, Elle Decor, New York Times, The Observer, Vogue, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and more. She received her MFA in Curatorial Practice from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA from Rutgers University in Art History and Philosophy.
About the Speakers
Marcela Guerrero has worked at the Whitney for nearly six years and was the Museum’s first curator to specialize in Latinx art. She currently serves as the Jennifer Rubio Associate Curator and has
curated landmark exhibitions like no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria. That show, on view at the Museum through April 23, explores the impact of the devastating storm on contemporary Puerto Rican art. This powerful and renowned exhibition is the first survey of Puerto Rican art at a major U.S. art museum in fifty years.
Read More About Marcela Guerrero
Guerrero was also part of the curatorial team that organized Vida Americana: Mexican Muralist Remake American Art, 1925–1945 at the Whitney in 2020, and curated Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay: Indigenous Space, Modern Architecture, a 2018 exhibition that featured the work of seven emerging Latinx artists. This summer, Guerrero will co-curate an exhibition of artist Ilana Savdie’s latest work, including paintings and drawings, as well as new works produced for the Whitney. Guerrero is responsible for many major acquisitions of work by prominent Latinx artists to the Whitney’s collection, including Laura Aguilar, Patrick Martinez, and Freddy Rodriguez. She has also been instrumental in the Museum’s digital and on-site Spanish language initiatives.