We’re feeling bittersweet and full in our hearts today as we celebrate Queer|Art’s beloved Executive Director Travis Chamberlain, who is taking on a new role as Director of Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) in Washington, DC. After more than six years guiding Queer|Art forward with great care, an open spirit, and a boundless sense of possibility, Travis will become the next director of one of the oldest alternative arts spaces in the country. WPA’s mission is dedicated to supporting project-based collaborations between artists and audiences. Travis begins at WPA full-time in September. For more information, read the official announcement celebrating Travis’s new role here.
Image by Frank Lord
“I’m absolutely overwhelmed with pride by the progress we’ve made together over the last six and a half years at Queer|Art!” Travis beamed. “And I’m so grateful to our staff, our board, our supporters, and all the artists we serve for all that you have done, and continue to do, as vital members of our community to make this progress possible. While at Queer|Art, it has been my honor to nurture and be part of a creative community built around collective care and intergenerational exchange. These values of care and creative exchange are at the heart of who I am as a curator, director, and nonprofit leader. I am energized in this transition to expand my community-building work in new directions that will facilitate direct engagement and collaboration between artists and audiences, both nationally and internationally.”
Travis joined Queer|Art as the organization’s first full-time employee as Managing Director in 2017 and was named Executive Director in 2019. Over the past six years, he has steered QA’s growth in collaboration with our staff, Board, and artist community, taking founder Ira Sachs’s vision and helping to turn it into a dynamic nonprofit organization that now serves artists across the country.
Among his many accomplishments, Travis championed key programmatic expansions including establishing QA’s Awards division, through which he oversaw development of the Queer|Art|Prize, the Barbara Hammer Lesbian Experimental Filmmaking Grant, the Eva Yaa Asantewaa Grant for Queer Women(+) Dance Artists, and retained the Robert Giard Grant for Emerging LGBTQ+ Photographers, collectively awarding $314,000 to 45 artists over the past 6 years. New initiatives including our annual Queer|Art|Pride offerings and the Community Portrait Project also took shape under his leadership.
Travis has also guided the development of the organization’s evolving infrastructure from its origins as two founder-funded programs (Queer|Art|Mentorship and Queer|Art|Film) with a single part-time staff member (Vanessa Haroutunian) to a full-fledged non-profit with three full-time directors and a team of part-time coordinators and associates. Along the way, he successfully increased Queer|Art's operating budget from $150k to $750k and was instrumental in helping the organization meet its mandate to achieve a majority BIPOC queer board membership by 2021. Travis also led critical capacity building efforts by creating a strong base of fundraising sources and establishing key partnerships with The Whitney, MoMA, The Center, Abrons Arts Center, Movement Research, Danspace, and others, cementing Queer|Art’s role within NYC’s larger creative ecosystem.
“Travis has been an extraordinary leader whose vision for the organization has been always guided by his immense compassion for the artists we support,” writes Ira Sachs, Founding Director of QA. “He leads with ambition for impact and with his heart in equal measures. It is that combination which has been foundational for the organization as it exists today. Travis is part of the DNA of Queer|Art and will remain so long into the organization’s future.”
As Travis prepares for his new position, Queer|Art’s Board of Directors is very pleased to announce Rio Sofia, Programs & Operations Director, and L Marmon, Director of Development, as Interim Co-Directors. In the coming days, we will share more about the future of Queer|Art’s new co-leadership model and hear from Rio and L about their vision for this next major chapter in Queer|Art’s future.
Learn more about Washington Project for the Arts here.