The Pandemic Salon
The Pandemic Salon, moderated and curated by Dannielle Tegeder, began in early quarantine to host weekly discussions on topics related to the pandemic, such as memorialization, anarchy, illness, isolation, architecture, secrets, and more. The Salon creates an opportunity to bring together artists, writers, thinkers, and other creative minds to discuss selected topics in an informal, online environment. While on lockdown, the salon has connected a global audience of over 600 participants from over 40 countries. Discussions begin through presentations grounded in disciplines including philosophy, classical music, poetry, science, and art. The Salon’s cross-disciplinary openness creates a sense of community across countries, dismantling hierarchical structures often seen in traditional forms of institutional discussion and showcasing.
The Pandemic Salon took place from April 11, 2020 to May 1, 2021.
The program included writers, poets and artists such as Lewis Hyde, Cecilia Vicuna, Dread Scott, Rick Moody, and Pablo León de la Barra.
The Pandemic Salon: / ON WORDS AS WEAPONS
/ ON WORDS AS WEAPONS (May 1) - Cecilia Vicuna (artist, poet, filmmaker, and activist), Dread Scott (artist who makes revolutionary work to propel history forward), Daniel McCarthy Clifford (artist and prison reform activist), and Pablo Helguera (writer, artist, and The New School professor)
The Pandemic Salon: / ON MARKING TIME
/ ON MARKING TIME (March 20) - Ronald L. Mallett (theoretical physicist, author, and Research Professor of Physics at The University of Connecticut), Judith Rodenbeck (author and Associate Professor of Media & Cultural Studies at UC Riverside), Judith Sloan (actor, audio artist, writer, radio producer, human rights activist, educator, and poet), Pablo Helguera (writer, artist and The New School professor, and Jeff Abell (interdisciplinary artist encompassing music, sound, art, performance, critical and creative writing, and photography)
The Pandemic Salon: / ON HOTELS
/ ON HOTELS (February 20) – Rick Moody (author and Bonderman Professor of the Practice of Literary Arts at Brown University), Pablo León de la Barra (Curator at Large, Latin America at the Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York and Chief Curator at MAC Museum of Contemporary Art of Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro), Sherill Tippins (author), Pablo Helguera (writer, artist, and The New School Professor), Chris Doyle (artist), and Chris Stewart (musician)
The Pandemic Salon: / ON THE LONG WINTER
/ ON THE LONG WINTER (January 23) - Janet Biggs (artist), Ruth B. Bottigheimer (Professor at SUNY Stonybrook and fairy tale expert), Louise Miglionico (Psychiatrist and Snowflake Bentley Museum board member), Lily Desmond (storytelling musician), Eliza Winter (musician), and Gavin Barry (musician)
The Pandemic Salon: / ON GIFTS
/ ON GIFTS (December 19) - Lewis Hyde (author of The Gift and educator), Sal Randolph (artist, writer, and educator), Pablo Helguera (writer, artist, and The New School Professor), and Joseph Winters (Associate Professor of Religious Studies and African and African American Studies at Duke University)
The Pandemic Salon: / ON WAITING
/ ON WAITING (November 21) - Sreshta Rit Premnath (multidisciplinary artist and founding editor of Shifter), Heather Watkins (Portland-based artist), Pablo Helguera (writer, artist, and MoMA educator), and Jennifer Coates (artist and musician)
The Pandemic Salon: / ON AUTONOMY
/ ON AUTONOMY (October 24) - Fran Ilich (media artist, essayist, and novelist), YKON (Finnish collective), Jason File (artist, international lawyer), Lily Desmond (storytelling musician), and Matthew Evan Taylor (composer, musician, and Professor at Middlebury College) in collaboration with The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts
The Pandemic Salon: / ON INVISIBLE ECONOMIES
/ ON INVISIBLE ECONOMIES (October 17) - Jillian Steinhauer (NY Times writer, journalist, and culture critic), Marisa Morán Jahn (artist, filmmaker, and creative technologist), Brian Young (Director of Baum Gallery at the University of Central Arkansas), Lauren van Haaften-Schick (curator, writer and co-founder of the Redistribution Project) and Kenneth Pietrobono (artist and co-founder of the Redistribution Project), and Lily Desmond (storytelling musician) in collaboration with The Art Conference
The Pandemic Salon: / ON SECRETS
/ ON SECRETS (August 8) - Anthony Allen (Director of Paula Cooper Gallery spoke on Sophie Calle), Sarah Newman (Director of Art and Education at metaLAB Harvard), Richard Grayson (artist, writer, curator, Bartlett Research Fellow in the Department of Fine Art at Newcastle University and a Visiting Tutor at Ruskin School, University of Oxford), and Pablo Helguera (writer, artist, and MoMA educator)
The Pandemic Salon: / ON ANARCHY
/ ON ANARCHY (June 27) - Zoe Samudzi (author of As Black as Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation), Cindy Milstein (anarchist author), Mark Bray (Professor at Rutgers University and Antifa author), and Pablo Helguera (writer, artist, and MoMA educator)
The Pandemic Salon: / ON ILLNESS
/ ON ILLNESS (May 23) - Mark Tschaepe (Prairie View A&M University Associate Professor of Philosophy), Sophie Barrett-Kahn (visual artist), Beatriz Helguera-Snow (classical musician), Richard Barnett (medical historian and author of The Sick Rose based in Glasgow), Pablo Helguera (writer, artist, and MoMA educator), Liz Burns (medical photography archivist at the Burns Archive, the largest medical archive in the world), and Christopher Stewart (musician)
The Pandemic Salon: / ON MAGIC
/ ON MAGIC (April 18) - CA Conrad (poet), Adam Cardone and Maritess Zurbano (magicians), Jillian Conrad (artist), Jen Figueroa (Santeria practitioner, CUNY student, artist), and Julia Allane Keefe, Orlando le Fleming, and Christopher Stewart (musicians)
The Pandemic Salon: / ON ARCHITECTURE
/ ON ARCHITECTURE (April 11) - Matthew Evan Taylor (composer, musician, and Professor at Middlebury College), Warren James (Director, Art Omi: Architecture), Natalia Irina Roman (artist based in Berlin), Paul Clemence (art / architecture photographer and critic), and Christopher Stewart (musician)