Rebecca Pristoop is a New York based curator and art historian and Director of Programming at Art Connects New York. She received an MA in Art History from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and a BA in Art History and Dance from Skidmore College.
As a curator, her interests lie with contemporary art that engages politics or cuts through the limitations of traditional media, while as a researcher she revels in uncovering unknown artists and giving them their proper recognition.
As Director of Programming at Art Connects New York, Pristoop connects artists and curators with non-pro t social service agencies throughout NYC to create permanent exhibitions of contemporary artwork that serve the specific constituency of each organization.
She has curated exhibitions in museums, schools, non-pro t gal- leries, and even her own home. Select exhibitions include: Counter Pointe: Perceiving the Body in Ballet Photography, The Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York (2004); Fragile Territories, LaunchPad, Brooklyn (2013); Traversing Tradition: Transformation in and of Con- temporary Jewish Life, The Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, NY (2015/16); and Devotion/Destruction: Craft Inheritance, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Long Island City, NY (2016). From 2010 to 2011 Pristoop ran the art and food salon flatbreadaffair from her Brooklyn apartment, where she curated site-specific exhibitions, dinners, and panels. At the Jewish Museum, New York, she served as a curatorial assistant for Crossing Borders: Manuscripts from the Bodleian Libraries (2012) and Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television (2015). She was a research assistant for Lucian Freud: The Painter’s Etchings and Kirchner and the Berlin Street, The Museum of Modern Art (2008).
MA, Art History, New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, New York, NY, May 2008
BA, double major, Art History/Dance, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, May 2004
HONORS: Magna Cum Laude, Periclean Society, High Honors, Department Honors
S.A.C.I. (Studio Art Centers International), Florence, Italy, Spring 2003
No Longer Empty, Curatorial Lab, Jamaica, Queens, October 2017 – April 2018
Areas of Specialization: Modern/Contemporary/Installation/Site-Specific/Jewish/Feminist/Craft/Community
Micro Grant, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, September 2016
Haddasah-Brandeis Institute Research Award, Brandeis University, December 2014
Emergency Grant, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, July 2013
Shelby White and Leon Levy Travel Fellowship, Institute of Fine Arts, April 2006
S. Michael Eigen ’87 Prize in Art History, Skidmore College, May 2004
Student Opportunity Fund, Skidmore College, September 2003
Mind Crossing, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn, NY May 5, 2017
Art/Gender/Judaism: Transforming Identities, The Jewish Theological Seminary, NY April 11, 2016
Destruction: Objects & Materials, Dorsky Curatorial Programs, Long Island City, NY March 13, 2016
Material/Gender/Labor, Dorsky Curatorial Programs, Long Island City, NY February 28, 2016
Fragile Territories, LaunchPad, Brooklyn, NY August 4, 2013
Robert Moses, He Knows Us, flatbreadaffair, Brooklyn, NY February 9, 2011
The Art of John Coplans, Tang Teaching Museum & Art Gallery, March 25, 2004
Director of Programs, Art Connects New York, November 2016 – Present
Co-Curator, Inaugural Southeast Queens Biennial, February 8 – April 21, 2018 York College Art Gallery
Curatorial Consultant, VIOLATED! Women in Holocaust and Genocide, April 12 – May 12, 2018 Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY
Curator, Never on Our Plate, October 7 – November 4, 2016 A.I.R. Gallery and Repair the World, Brooklyn, NY
Curator, Devotion/Destruction: Craft Inheritance, January 18 – March 27, 2016 Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Long Island City, NY
Guest Curator, Traversing Tradition: Transformation and in and of Contemporary Jewish Life, November 2014 – June 2016
The Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, NY
Research Assistant, Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television, October 2013 – April 2015
The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Curator, Fragile Territories, July 14 – August 4, 2013 LaunchPad, Brooklyn, NY
Leon Levy Curatorial Assistant, Crossing Borders: Manuscripts from the Bodleian Libraries, October 2010 – October 2012
The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Curator, flatbreadaffair, September 2010 – April 2011 Brooklyn, NY
- Sourced Material: Wool
- Beastly Habits
- Robert Moses, He Knows Us
Curator, To: Brooklyn, Sincerely: Soweto, July 9 – 31, 2009 Rabbit Hole Studio Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Research Assistant, Kirchner and the Berlin Street & Lucian Freud: The Painter’s Etchings, 2007–08
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Curator, Pilgrimage: An Exploration of Collective Memory, January 25 – March 6, 2006
The Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU, New York, NY
Curator, Counter Pointe: Perceiving the Body in Ballet Photography, January 24 – May 23, 2004
Tang Teaching Museum & Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY
Independent
A.I.R./Repair the World, Press Releases, October 2016: “Never on Our Plate”
Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Exhibition Brochure, January 2016: “Devotion/Destruction: Craft Inheritance”
The Jewish Theological Seminary, Exhibition Brochure, September 2015: “Traversing Tradition: Transformation in and of Contemporary Jewish Life”
Slag Contemporary, Press Release, January 2014: “Always on Our Plate”
LaunchPad, Exhibition Catalogue, July 2013: “Fragile Territories”
flatbreadaffair, Exhibition Brochures: December 2010, ”Robert Moses, He Knows Us”;
November 2010, ”Beastly Habits”; September 2010, ”Sourced Material”
The Jewish Museum
Art, Culture + News, Fall 2012: “Recycling Righteousness: Harriet Estel Berman’s Tzedakah, 1999”
Art, Culture + News, Spring 2011: “Weaving Tradition into Trend: A Turkish Torah Ark Curtain”
Blog Post, February 1, 2012: “For Tu B’Shevat: Seeing Jewish Farming”
Blog Post, January 9, 2012: “Saying Goodbye in 2011: Lucian Freud and Tsirl Waletzky”
Blog Post, December 4, 2010: “Behind the Scenes of A Hanukkah Project: Daniel Libeskind’s Line of Fire”