Looking Back at Inaugural Year 2021

We’ve come a long way in a short time! In late December, on the anniversary of our IRS application for nonprofit designation, ViVA stepped back (with a glass of wine) to take in a wide-angle view of the first months of an organization that started in mid-2020 as a fledgling idea about how to efficiently solve an unwieldy set of social, economic, climate and political problems. In this New Year, we wanted to take a moment to share our organization’s history and timeline, since going public in the summer of 2021:

July-December, 2020 – ViVA Co-founders research and run a comparison analysis, undertake a positioning study, and talk to higher education, museum and arts professionals about needs

December 23 – ViVA files application for nonprofit status as a 501(c)3 organization, with an inaugural board of eight trustees

January-May, 2021 – ViVA talks to artists and interviews educators for its inaugural roster

June 30 – ViVA presents a panel at the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences (AESS) conference

July 20 – ViVA publicly launches as a new nonprofit organization, announces inaugural roster of ViVA Artists and Educators

August 26 – ViVA announces two inaugural interns: Alasia Destine-DeFreece and Zoë Fejeran

August 23 – ViVA receives formal approval by the IRS as a 501(c)3 organization

August 27 – The first edition of ViVA’s e-newsletter ViVA Voices debuts

September 10 – ViVA announces availability of a Flight Impact Calculator measuring the carbon impact of round-trip flights

September 10 – Two new ViVA Educators are added to the team: Laurel Brown and Ksenya Gushtein join our ranks

September 23 – ViVA announces its first multi-artist series, hosted by Saint Vincent College

September 30 – Jordan Weber speaks in St. Vincent College’s virtual series curated by ViVA

October 7 – Ghana Think Tank delivers the second talk in St. Vincent College’s virtual series

October 14 – ViVA presents at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) conference

October 15 – ViVA announces invitation to be featured as the final installment in the College Art Association’s RAAMP (Resources for Academic Art Museum Professionals) Video Practica series, supported by Mellon and Kress

October 21 – Rania Lee Khalil gives the third installment in the four-part series for St. Vincent College

October 27 – Olivia Spiers joins ViVA as Education and Communications Editorial Intern

November 2 – ViVA partners with the Environment and Climate Network of the Alliance of American Museums (AAM) for a panel featuring international museum professionals and their green solutions

November 4 – ViVA partners with Princeton University for a talk by Marina Zurkow

November 11 – Courtney Desiree Morris delivers the fourth talk in the St. Vincent College series

November 16 – ViVA launches first formal survey of small academic museums and galleries

November 17 – ViVA signs formal MOU with Bard College’s Solve Climate 2030 Worldwide Teach-In scheduled for March 30, 2022

December 16 & 17 – ViVA co-presents a Solve Climate 2030 Worldwide Teach-In Information Sessions and releases Solve Climate Idea Sheet