New York’s Performance Space 122 has announced that Jenny Schlenzka will be its new executive artistic director, marking her departure from MoMA PS1, where she has been working as associate curator of performance.
Like MoMA PS1, PS122 is housed in a former public school. It was founded in 1980 and stages dance performances and performance art events, music concerts, and film screenings.
The institution has been working out of its permanent home since 2011, when it closed for renovations, and will return to its space on First Avenue this year.
Schlenzka was responsible for live programming at MoMA PS1, and developed the Sunday Sessions series, for which she worked with artists such as Ragnar Kjartansson, Anne Imhof, and Wu-Tang Clan. Previously, she was assistant curator for performance at MoMA, where she worked with artists like Simone Forti and Allora & Calzadilla. Her resume also includes a post as curatorial liaison between Berlin’s KW Institute for Contemporary art and MoMA PS1.
Her experience and network could mean big things for PS122. She is the first woman to hold the position, and will take over from current director Vallejo Gantner on February 1, 2017.
“At Performance Space 122, we celebrate courage—to challenge preconceived notions, to break barriers, both in substance and form, to take visible actions towards a freer, more expressive, diverse and equitable society. Jenny is a bold risk-taker whose programmatic choices combine a thorough curatorial approach with such great instincts on what it is that makes the heart of our extended community pulse. I am confident she will be a great leader at a very exciting time of growth for the organization,” Enrico Ciotti, PS122’s president, said in a statement.