First, I have to express immense gratitude for John Quatrale, our former Executive Director. Whether it be learning how to organize an exhibit from start to finish, planning and coordinating events, or better understanding how to reach new artists and connect with local community organizations, I’ve gained so much knowledge from John and it’s been a privilege to work alongside him.
When I first started out at UVA in February 2023, I was eager to learn about different kinds of work. This included gallery management, approaches to curation, non-profit administration, and learning about the resources available to Boston artists. Yet also underpinning my desire to get involved with UVA was a more straightforward goal: I wanted to know about the various creative happenings that were taking place in the city. After having been away for undergraduate and graduate school (six years straight!), I wanted to meet the people who were making art, and I wanted to meet the people who made sure we knew about their art. When I moved back to Boston in late summer 2022, I would go to events highlighted by the Boston Compass, check out live music performances presented by Non-Event, and follow the mission-driven work by organizations like Dunamis. In this way, not only did I look for what was going on in the city, but I was also seeking the venues, spaces, and organizations that were supporting local creatives — whether they were writers, musicians, dancers, or filmmakers. And once I started searching for smaller, independent venues that presented visual art specifically, I quickly found UVA.
Because I focused my research on 20th century Caribbean artists and ecology in grad school – and wanted to become more involved in visual art – I was immediately drawn to the strong themes that grounded and guided UVA’s exhibits. I was also moved by the organization’s focus on presenting artists from the Greater Boston area, again making sure we were seeing the work of individuals who lived nearby. After meeting John, I was sure this was a space I wanted to contribute to.
I started out as an intern and later became a part-time staff member, slowly taking on different responsibilities as I learned about the details of non-profit work and gallery management. I also had the chance to curate two exhibits, Threading Memory (Jillian Vaccaro) and Latinx Identities. And now, with so much more experience with management and exhibitions programming than I could have expected to gain, John and the Board have given me the opportunity to become UVA’s new Managing Director.
I can’t begin to say how honored I am and how much I appreciate their trust during this new phase. As I carry on this work, my goals are to ensure the sustainability of the organization and continue to demonstrate that UVA is not only a place for critical and unique contemporary art, but a place that invests in artists who live and work around Boston.
In this respect, I want to work with more artists who not only care deeply about their work, but also find ways to interrogate the current social, political, and ethical conditions we’re living under. I also hope to connect with more Black and Indigenous artists and curators — especially queer and trans creatives. There are a lot of us doing interesting work in the city and I want UVA to be a space where we can present our projects.
As Managing Director, I also want to make collaboration more of an integral part of our programming by presenting exhibits with other collectives, organizations, and groups. This is a way for all of us to meet new faces, reach wider audiences, and foster greater awareness of who’s working in – and behind – Boston’s creative sector.
While these are my personal goals, I have to say that they’ve also been shaped by what I’ve learned from John and from what I’ve seen UVA do.
Ultimately, I started out at UVA because I wanted to meet and support artists and that’s what I hope to keep doing!
-Jessica
Jessica Hernandez is a DJ and producer. She’s interested in dance oriented works and experimental forms of electronic music that incorporate repetition and continuity, visceral percussive rhythms, and roughly-textured field recordings. In regard to visual art, Jessica is drawn to works that function as modes of cultural critique and forms of intellectual thought. She is especially moved by works that engage with history, Blackness, and the Caribbean through abstraction, sculpture, and assemblage. Jessica received her B.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies from Swarthmore College in 2020 and her M.A. in History from the University of Virginia in 2022. In 2024, she and Aaron Michael Smith founded Transporter, an experimental music series located at the Boston Cyberarts Gallery.