COURTESY PROJECTART
ProjectArt, the non-profit turning libraries across the country into active art spaces, has appointed Chana Budgazad Sheldon its new director for Miami and national program advisor. In the latter role, Sheldon will oversee the expansion of ProjectArt’s education and residency program into libraries across Chicago, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh later this year.
For the past eight years Sheldon has served as executive director of Miami’s artist-run gallery Locust Projects. In that position, Sheldon expanded the gallery’s youth education and public art programming and produced more than 70 exhibitions by an international roster of artists including Theaster Gates, Daniel Arsham, Ruben Ochoa, Jillian Mayer, Martha Friedman, Nicholas Hlobo, and Liam Gillick.
“ProjectArt is transforming the library system into cultural hubs,” Sheldon told ARTnews. Part of the process owes to the organization’s residency program, which invites contemporary visual artists to spend time in local libraries working on their own projects while teaching kids aged 4-17. In effect, Sheldon explained, ProjectArt is building “America’s largest free art school” without owning a single building.
“I am a strong believer in the transformative power of art and am thrilled to be part of an organization and movement that brings art to underserved children and communities across the country,” she said.