Photo by Jahtiek Long
Melissa West (Director & Senior Curator of the Newhouse Center for Contemporary) is a leading force behind the compelling vision for the arts at Snug Harbor. In this senior role, West is responsible for the development and implementation of exhibitions, performances, residencies, public art and related programs across the historic 83-acre campus. With a curatorial focus on artists working in site-based contexts, West has presented emerging and established artists across the visual and performing arts. A dance artist, West's own work has been shown at venues across NYC. She directed the grassroots art walk, Second Saturdays Staten Island, from 2013-15. Melissa holds an MA in Performance Studies from New York University and a BA in Dance and English from Hunter College, CUNY. She joined the staff at Snug Harbor in 2015.
As director of the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, West oversees multiple exhibitions per year within 15,000 square feet of gallery space situated in two historic buildings on Snug Harbor’s idyllic campus. Curatorial credits include the major retrospective of painter, Sarah Yuster, Native Soil: Incidence & Homescapes (2018), sculptor Kristi Pfister’s, Columns & Caryatids (2018), and Heal the Man in order to Heal the Land - Tattfoo Tan (2019). West was the lead curator for the exhibition, Breaking Ground: Twenty Years of the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden (2019), co-curated Roots/Anchors (with Will Corwin, 2021), and produced Kathy Westwater: PARK Ephemera (2022) and Staten Island Mode: Identity, Memory, Fashion (2023). In 2020, West produced In Visible by DB Lampman and I Am Everybody: Reda Abdelrahman. West has been the director of Snug Harbor’s signature artist residency program, PASS (Performing Arts Salon Saturdays, founded by Gabri Christa) since 2017.
Prior to Snug Harbor, West curated visual art and performance in DIY spaces throughout NYC. From 2007-2009, West co-curated a multidisciplinary series, Mixed Bill, at the Bowery Poetry Club through Public Acts of Decency with Patrice Miller and Laura Brandel. She developed programs around art and environmentalism at Hunter College, and was a company manager for the Hunter College Dance Company. She has worked on productions and festivals including the LaMaMa Moves Dance Festival, Martha Graham II season at Marymount Manhattan College, and the River to River Festival (Lower Manhattan Cultural Council). She was the production assistant for Yoshiko Chuma & the School of Hard Knocks premiere of A-C-E One through GOH Productions in 2010.
At the core of her process is the drive to create opportunities for Staten Island artists both locally and citywide, and to develop innovative art experiences on Staten Island. An advocate for arts equity, she directed Staten Island’s only art walk, Second Saturdays, from 2013-15. She has served on selection panels and symposia, including the Dance/NYC Symposium (Arts & Geographical Equity panel, 2015), DCLA Percent for Art, and MTA Art & Design. Along with Alyssa Rapp & Melisande Echanique, West co-organized the Staten Island Dance Project supporting the intergenerational dance community on Staten Island through classes, performance opportunities, and public programs (note: SIDP is presently on hiatus). She is a 2023 Fellow for Utopian Practice through Culture Push with collaborator Jahtiek Long, and 2023 & 2024 Mertz Gilmore Dance Research grantee through Staten Island Arts. West is an adjunct faculty member at Wagner College, teaching dance history in the dance department along with guest workshops and engagements in contemporary dance and choreography.
From top to bottom (l-r): Kinesis Project dance theatre (PASS, 2019), Janice Rosario & Company (PASS, 2018), Justy Music at Porch Plays (2020), BIG PICNIC (2019), Lily Gold (PASS, 2019), Tatyana Tenenbaum (PASS, 2016), BIG PICNIC (2019), Jenn Gallo at Porch Plays (2020), Julie Mayo (PASS, 2019), Heal the Man… exhibit (2019), Breaking Ground exhibit (2019), Julia Simoniello: Reclamation (2019), Lina Montoya mural commission (2019), Cecile Chong’s, El Dorado (2020), Tattfoo Tan’s NEAKA (2019), Yoshiko Chuma (PASS, 2016), Roots/Anchors exhibit (2021), Don’t Shut Up 2021 exhibit (2021), Kathy Westwater, Untitled Solo PARK Cycle 2 (2021), Here, Still installation by Kevyn Fairchild (2021).
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Images by Lance Reha, Christine Cruz, Meredith Sladek, Tattfoo Tan, Lisa Dahl; courtesy of Snug Harbor