
Natalie Marsh
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