Social Practice CUNY Sunsetting Announcement

It’s April, the time when Social Practice CUNY traditionally puts out a call for applications for a new cohort of fellows. This year, we have a different announcement to share: SPCUNY will be coming to a close at the end of February 2027. The 2025–26 cohort has been our last.

SPCUNY was born out of a dream: the desire to connect practitioners working at the intersection of art and social justice across the CUNY system. As vibrant and diverse as CUNY is, it’s also no secret that we have a hard time connecting across departments, let alone across our 25 campuses, even when there are people we should know, doing work that’s deeply aligned. We set out to help bridge that gap, and for the past 5 years, with the generous support of the Mellon Foundation, we’ve been able to do so. We’ve supported more 120 Fellows towards amazing, project-based work, built an engaged and connected cohort each year, and cultivated a strong and growing ongoing alumni network.

We’re proud of the work we’ve accomplished, but the reality is that this work isn’t sustainable in its current form. Chloë resigned from her faculty position at Queens College in the spring of 2025 and Greg will be celebrating his retirement in the spring of 2026. In a perfect world, CUNY would receive the full funding it deserves, allowing the university system to support projects like ours among many others. While we’ve been fortunate to work with extraordinary funders like the Mellon Foundation whose support from day one made it possible to build our team, provide financial support to Fellows, and more, as well as the more recent support of the Eugene Lang Foundation — the reality is that SPCUNY is an artist-run initiative, and it’s time for this chapter to come to a close. We’ve existed in a beautiful but liminal space: we’re an initiative tied to a public institution, but we’re not, and have never been, an institution of our own.

This decision to sunset comes after an intentional process, and in our final months we’re planning a number of wonderful ways to bring our community together:

First is our already announced and ongoing public program series How Do We ________ in Public? offers SPCUNY audiences the opportunity to engage with ideas and practices of our own creative staff. We kicked off the series with the extremely popular conversation How Do We Study in Public? in February 2026, and will continue to unfold exciting events throughout the calendar year. The next event, How Do We Move in Public? will take place on Saturday, May 9 at 4PM — RSVP is encouraged.

Second, we’re working on a new book! Eight years ago, under our previous initiative Social Practice Queens (SPQ), we published Art as Social Action, which shares our pedagogical approaches and those of our colleagues around the world with a wider audience. Our forthcoming book Practicing in Public, edited by our amazing Associate Director Catherine LaSota and published by OR Books, will be based on the idea of conversation itself. This collection will feature SPCUNY Fellows from all five of our cohorts, along with some of their notable collaborators, in 15 new dialogues exploring topics relevant to socially engaged artists, activists, and community members. We hope this publication will offer meaningful insights and lessons learned for those committed to building a more just future through public practices.

Third, it’s our hope that we leave our work in good shape: legacy is important not only as a reflection of our achievement, but as a nod towards what might come next. Putting it simply, we hope that someone else will choose to do this work one day, and in the belief of that person, or those people, we’re working to archive our materials so that they remain publicly accessible.

Finally, we’re planning for a closing gathering in February 2027: a moment to bring together the incredible people we know in celebration and solidarity. We’ll send out more information as the date approaches, and we hope you’ll join us.

It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s been a good run. Thanks for completing it with us.

With appreciation,
The SPCUNY Team

SPCUNY has been shaped by an extraordinary community of collaborators, staff, and supporters. We’re deeply grateful to everyone who has contributed their time, care, and ideas over the years.

Current Team
Gregory Sholette, Co-Director, 2021 – 2027
Chloë Bass, Co-Director, 2021 – 2027
Catherine LaSota, Associate Director, 2024 – 2027
Cory Tamler, Program Coordinator, 2021 – 2027
Jacquelyn Marie Shannon, Program Coordinator, 2024 – 2027
Nicolás Dumit Estevez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel, Teaching Scholar in Residence, 2025 – 2026
Tom Finkelpearl, Teaching Scholar in Residence, 2023 – 2027
Ting Y. Lin, Communications Consultant, 2021 – 2027

Past Team Members
Amir Farjoun (2021 – 2024) and Natalia Nakazawa (2023 – 2024)

Web Design
Cynthia Moralez

Advisory Board
Nandini Bagchee (City College)
Claire Bishop (CUNY Graduate Center)
Daniel Bozhkov (Hunter College)
Peter Eckersall (CUNY Graduate Center)
Jeff Kasper (UMass Amherst)
Cindi Katz (CUNY Graduate Center)
Helen Koh (CUNY Graduate Center)
Jennifer McCoy (Brooklyn College)
Sally Tallant (Former Executive Director, Queens Museum)
Paul Ramirez Jonas (2020 – 2021; Formerly Hunter College)

CUNY Cultural Corps Interns
Leah Garcia, Silvia Mihai, Maliyah Mohamed, Christina Lynch, Marisa Wang, and Anlisa Outar

Mellon Public Humanities and Social Justice Intern
Candela Cubria

And for encouragement along the way:
Joshua C. Brumberg, Kendra Sullivan, Katherine Carl, and Daniel Siepman

Financial Support
2021 – 2027 (Social Practice CUNY)
The Mellon Foundation
The Eugene Lang Foundation

2011 – 2020 (Social Practice Queens)
Rockefeller Foundation
Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation
Vilcek Foundation