Performa Staff
RoseLee Goldberg, Founding Director and Curator
Esa Nickle, General Manager/Producer
Defne Ayas, Curator at Large
Mark Beasley, Curator
Dougal Phillips, Manager of Curatorial Affairs
Lana Wilson, Film and Dance Curator / Publications Editor
Ashley Tickle, Press and Marketing Manager
Adrienne Edwards , Strategic Development
Shelley Gross, Assistant to the Director/Special Events
Lillie De Armon, Production Manager
Hyatt Mannix, Press and Marketing Assistant
Anthony Elms, Associate Producer
Austin Shull, Associate Producer
Jennifer Piejko, Assistant to the Producer
Leonor Torres, Production Assistant
Marc Arthur, Front of House Manager
Loren Mullins, Director's Office/Special Events
Sara Campot, Press and Archive Intern
Livia Carpeggiani, Development Assistant
Sarah Stout, Development Assistant
Clara Touboul, Intern
Alexandre Delange, Intern
Rebecca Schwebel, Intern
Staff Bios
Roselee Goldberg, Founding Director & Curator
RoseLee Goldberg, art historian, critic, curator and author whose book Performance Art from Futurism to the Present first published in 1979, pioneered the study of performance art. A graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art (London University), she was director of the Royal College of Art Gallery in London and curator at The Kitchen in New York. In 1990 she organized 'Six Evenings of Performance' as part of the acclaimed exhibition 'High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture' at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Author of Performance: Live Art Since 1960 and Laurie Anderson), she is a frequent contributor to Artforum and other magazines. In 2001-02 Goldberg originated and produced Logic of the Birds , a full length multimedia production by Iranian born artist Shirin Neshat in collaboration with singer Sussan Deyhim, which premiered at the Lincoln Center Summer Festival in 2002 and toured to the Walker Art Institute in Minneapolis and to Artangel in London. RoseLee Goldberg has lectured extensively at The Architectural Association in London, California Institute of the Arts, Yale, Princeton and Tate Modern, and has taught at New York University since 1987.RoseLeeGoldberg.org
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Esa Nickle, General Manager/Producer
Esa Nickle joined the Performa team in May 2005 as the Biennial Coordinator of the Performa 05 biennial and has since expanded her role as the line producer of Performa commissions, international tours and special events. During her 16 years working in the field she has managed large scale public art events, art education programs, and curatorial projects for the city agencies such as the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival in London. Since arriving in New York in 1998 Esa has worked with public art consultant Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz, MTA Arts for Transit, managed White Box, a non-profit alternative contemporary arts space in Chelsea and curated several exhibitions and programs on sound art and experimental music. Esa studied the Sociology of Art at Indiana University and Art History at the City University, London.^ Back to top
Defne Ayas, Curator
Defne Ayas is a curator and educator split between New York and Shanghai. Since 2004, Ayas worked extensively as a consortium liaison for Performa05, and Performa07, and since then, continues to present performances and performance-related programs with an international roster of artists, curators, and critical thinkers. Prior to joining our organization, Ayas worked at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, where she coordinated the museum's educational, public and new media programming, including inter-disciplinary roundtables with leaders in the fields of visual arts and architecture for the Museum as a Hub initiative. Split between New York and Shanghai, where she is a Director of Arthub Asia, Ayas also serves as a curatorial advisor to Artissima, Turin; 8th Gwangju Biennial; Artist Pension Trust, and CCA in Kabul, Afghanistan. Ayas completed De Appel Curatorial Training Program in Amsterdam and received her Masters Degree from the ITP at New York University.
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Mark Beasley, Curator
Mark Beasley is a curator, writer and artist based in New York. Prior to Performa, he worked at the New York based public art organization Creative Time. His recent projects include the first public art quadrennial Plot/09: This World & Nearer Ones; Hey Hey Glossolalia: exhibiting the voice, and Javier Tellez critically acclaimed film A Letter on the Blind. As an independent curator he organized the international touring show Electric Earth: Film and Video from Britain, for the British Council; Infra thin Projects with Book Works, London and Sudden White (after London), at the Royal Academy of Art. Between 2004-2005 he was the Stanley Picker Research Fellow in Fine Art at Kingston University, London and has contributed articles and essays to numerous exhibition catalogues, radio plays and journals including Dot Dot Dot, Art Forum and frieze. He is represented by MOT International gallery in London. He received his BA Hons in Fine Art from Bath University, UK and an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, London.
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Dougal Phillips, Manager of Curatorial Affairs
Dougal Phillips has a PhD in Art History and Theory from the University of Sydney, Australia, and has lectured in a wide range of subjects across art history and critical theory as well as on curatorial practice and biennials. He has curated exhibitions at Para/Site, Hong Kong; Post Museum, Singapore; the Asia-Australia Art Centre; and the Nextwave Festival in Melbourne; and has worked as a director and curator at several artist-run spaces. From 2007-2010 he was Public Program and Education Manager for the 16th and 17th Biennales of Sydney, working with Artistic Directors Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (2008) and David Elliott (2010). In 2010, prior to joining Performa, he was curator-in-residence at Kadist Art Foundation, Paris. His writing about art, theory, and music has been published in journals and books in Australia, Europe and the United States.
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Lana Wilson, Film and Dance Curator / Publications Editor
Lana Wilson curates the film programs, co-curates the dance programs, and handles all publications for Performa. For Performa 11, she curated and produced a new live performance by Guy Maddin, Tales from the Gimli Hospital: Reframed, organized the film series Not Funny: Stand-Up Comedy and Visual Artists, and curated performances by Boris Charmatz, Eleanor Bauer, and L'Encyclopedie de la Parole. For Performa 09, she co-curated Performa’s first-ever film commission, Futurist Life Redux, presented a retrospective of Futurist-related films at Anthology Film Archives, and organized an outdoor screening of “city symphony films” on the High Line with live music by Text of Light. For Performa 07, she organized the Dance After Choreography film program, which subsequently toured to the Jerusalem International Film Festival, the Tanzquartier Wien (Vienna), and the V-dance International Video Dance Festival (Tel Aviv). Lana is also a filmmaker currently directing and producing the feature documentary After Tiller, as well as a freelance book and publications editor. As a dancer, Lana has performed with Aki Sasamoto, Michael Bodel, and Lily Skove (SkoveWorks), among others. She holds a BA in Film Studies and Dance from Wesleyan University, where she graduated with honors.^ Back to top
Ashley Tickle, Press and Marketing Manager
Ashley Tickle joined the Performa team in October 2010 as their Press and Marketing Manager. From 2007–2010, she was Public Affairs Associate at Dia Art Foundation, where she handled communications for Dia’s collection, museum, sites, and programs. Previously she handled publicity for Yvon Lambert Gallery and Jacobson Howard Gallery in New York. A former dancer, she trained with Ballet Austin, in Austin, Texas, and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. Ashley graduated from The New School University in New York with a BA in Art History.^ Back to top
Adrienne Edwards, Strategic Development
Adrienne Edwards is responsible for Performa’s strategic development. In her role, she is completing a five-year strategic plan and has primary responsibility for increasing sources of support for Performa’s biennials, among other special projects. Adrienne was most recently Vice President of Development & Special Projects at the Apollo Theater Foundation where she was responsible for the strategic direction and implementation of the Foundation’s capital campaign in addition to overseeing a range of vital special projects, including the 75th Anniversary, Archive Project, and strategic planning. Prior to her work at the Apollo, Adrienne served as Director of Foundation & Government Relations at the Whitney Museum of American Art, as a Program Associate at the Pew Charitable Trusts in the Culture Program, and as an Associate Program Officer at JP Morgan in Philanthropic Services. Earlier in her career, she worked at the Center for Arts Education, an Annenberg Foundation initiative, and Sotheby’s. Adrienne has lectured and taught courses on arts administration, fundraising, and marketing at a number of colleges and universities, including Drexel University and the Bank Street School of Education. A graduate of Spelman College with a B.A. in History and Art History, Adrienne also has an M.A. in Art History and Nonpro?t Management from Seton Hall University where she was a Henry Luce Foundation Scholar.^ Back to top