ABOUT US
Origins
LAAGP started as an artwork dreamt up in 2015 by two young artists, Maia Chao and Josephine Devanbu, grappling with the relevance of our chosen field to a wider public. Both of us come from upper-middle class, interracial (Chinese/White and Indian/White, respectively) households with teaching artist parents. The value of art and art museums was a given. But we recognized that this assumption was firmly rooted in the intersectional privileges of our identities.
Having both studied social science in addition to art, we craved a candid conversation about the structural inequalities of art and its institutions. As a collective, we are committed to collaborative and participatory art that models redistribution. We believe in the potential of pooled resources, bartered skills, and shared spaces.
We embrace our role as artists to valorize the strange, seemingly illogical, and fleeting to imagine another world with different terms and assumptions: What would it take to facilitate an art experience that does not depend on the assumption that art, and viewing it, is inherently valuable to all? What would happen if working class folks were paid to look at art?
We aim to destabilize conventional ideas of expertise and develop practices that center marginalized voices without requiring them to assimilate. Influences include: Art Workers Coalition, W.A.G.E., Andrea Fraser, Fred Wilson, Stephanie Syjuco, Tania Bruguera, Hilton Als, Sara Ahmed, adrienne maree brown, bell hooks, Jeff Chang, and Paolo Freire.
Team Bios
MAIA CHAO
Artist & Co-Creator
Maia Chao is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work—often playful and absurd—examines informal and formal institutions, such as family, school, language, economic systems and legal systems. Working in performance, video, social practice, and installation, she frequently uses and misuses methods from anthropology, linguistics, and psychology. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Grant (2014), Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship (2017), Van Lier Fellowship (2018), and Pioneer Works Residency (2019). She teaches at Moore College of Art and Design. www.maiachao.com
JOSEPHINE DEVANBU
Artist & Co-Creator
Josephine Devanbu is an interdisciplinary artist who draws upon social practice and community based participatory research to fight the systematic de-valuing of knowledge that exists outside whiteness, affluence, and western science. Devanbu holds a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA in Science and Technology Studies from Brown University. She is based in Providence, RI.
EMILY CURRAN
Program Coordinator
Emily Curran is an educator and collaborative leader dedicated to building equity in museums and meaningful connections with their communities. She brings decades of museum experience to her work with LAAGP, including 25 years as Executive Director of Old South Meeting House in Boston, where she worked with board, staff, and the larger community to build the 1729 historic site and museum into a vibrant, accessible center for public dialogue and performance with a special commitment to free speech. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from Bard College and an MS Ed in Leadership in Museum Education from Bank Street. She is based in Boston.
OUR ADVISORS
YONA BACKER
Yona Backer is a creative strategist, cultural consultant, specialist in nonprofit management, and producer working at the intersection of the fields of contemporary art and social justice. She is the founder of Third Streaming Strategic Services (3S), a NYC-based research and creative consultancy firm that specializes in strategic guidance, strategic planning, impact assessments, program development, evaluations, capacity building and effective project management at moments of organizational change. Learn more.
Janeen Bryant
Janeen Bryant, the founder of Facilitate Movement, has been an advocate and catalyst for building community capacity since 2000. Janeen, as an inter-sectional educator, facilitator and community engagement consultant, has dedicated her work in museums to building capacity for empathetic museum spaces, programs, and experiences. She is active in multiple industry-wide initiatives including Museums and Race and MASS Action. Learn more.
KAYLEIGH BRYANT-GREENWELL
Kayleigh is Head of Public Programs at Smithsonian American Art Museum. As a DEAI [diversity, equity, accessibility, inclusion] facilitator, she is a contributor to national initiatives towards increasing equity and inclusion in museums including: Museum As Site for Social Action [MASS Action], The Empathetic Museum, and the inaugural National Summit for Teaching Slavery. Learn more.
PETER LINETT
Peter Linett is President of Slover Linett audience research. He is the author or co-author of research reports on a wide range of topics, including creative placemaking impacts (for the Levitt Foundation), arts innovation (for the Irvine Foundation), community engagement with controversial subjects (for the Smithsonian Human Origins Program at the National Museum of Natural History), and the role of the arts in higher education (for Cornell University and the Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago). Learn more.
MONICA MONTGOMERY
As co founder and strategic director of Museum Hue, Monica advocates for people of color in arts, culture and museums, working nationally to train leaders and partner with museums to facilitate diversity, equity & inclusion initiatives. Additionally, Monica is the founding director of Museum of Impact the world’s first mobile social justice museum, curating exhibits and festivals at the intersection of art, activism, social movements. Learn more.
Laura Raicovich
Laura Raicovich is dedicated to art and artistic production that relies on complexity, poetics, and care to create a more engaged and equitable civic realm. Until early 2018, she served as President and Executive Director of the Queens Museum where she oversaw an inviting and vital commons for art, ideas, and engagement. Learn more.
Nina Simon
Nina Simon is an Ashoka Fellow who has been called a “museum visionary” by Smithsonian Magazine and was named Santa Cruz County Woman of the Year (2017) for her innovative community leadership. She is the founder and CEO of OF/BY/FOR ALL, a global movement to help civic and cultural organizations become of, by, and for their communities. Previously, she was the Executive Director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. Learn more.