THE DVAA BLOG

All the Oddities

An Interview with Gallery Director Veronica Cianfrano

by Sara Mae Henke

Veronica oversees matters pertaining to the gallery and to the community of artists and art lovers that we serve at DVAA. She is a curator, multimedia artist, teacher, the youngest of three daughters, and a first-generation American.

For the last ten years, she has taught studio art and art theory courses to pre-college, undergraduate, and graduate students nationally and internationally. She was most recently the Curatorial Director at Tuft the World and the Curator and Gallery Director at Melton Gallery at the University of Central Oklahoma. Her professional practice is led by the governing principle that diverse perspectives and collaboration can lead to the best opportunities for public engagement and meaningful connections to the arts.

Veronica Cianfrano, our new Gallery Director, is a connoisseur of jumpsuits, and we share an affinity for sweet treats. Her work in the past has taken her to Oklahoma and back, though she has lived in Philly for cumulatively many years, doing pop up events all over the city through her CHER gallery (no relation) “to bring thematically relevant contemporary art exhibitions to communities that don’t normally experience them by organizing temporary events, happenings, and exhibitions in alternative spaces.” With a background in teaching, and just prior to DVAA having worked at Tuft the World, Veronica brings a playfulness discerning eye to her curation. 

Growing up in Connecticut with Italian immigrant parents, art was not immediately a part of Veronica’s life. When I asked how her upbringing informed her relationship to the arts community she kind of laughed. “When I wanted to go to school to study art, it was an issue, and my cousins thought it was hilarious for thinking that’s what I want to do. But also, I would go to Italy, I would go to the Vatican, and see all the work from the 1300s, from the time I was 4 years old I saw that stuff. But the community part wasn’t there. I was just a weirdo.” I had heard her talk before this about how transformative and life-changing art could be for young people, how important it was to be able to access those spaces, and those possibilities. 

I would go to Italy, I would go to the Vatican, and see all the work from the 1300s, from the time I was 4 years old I saw that stuff

Her first time experiencing art was when she saw the Barnum & Bailey museum. Although PT Barnum was, as they say, a huckster, it was that a world could be made for the enjoyment of a viewer. “It’s the only museum within a quick driving distance from the school I went to as a kid, but inside is all the oddities he made up for the circus…That blew my mind,” Veronica said. “That there’s a person out there who made stuff up and everyone went along with it. Well I thought, you can make your own world up. Of course, he was not a positive influence at the end of the day…But hey! Damian Hurst, has got nothing on PT Barnum.”

Her favorite curator now is Judy Pfaff. Veronica enthusiastically showed me her exhibition, Roots Up, pulling it up on her computer screen and tracing the dead roots of the tree with her finger. In this way, Pfaff creates these “situational sculptures” that can guide the perspective of the viewers. Veronica explained how she admires that Pfaff can create narratives for so many different people. She talked about the role of accessibility and engagement in how an exhibition is designed. “I would love to incorporate more tactile, hands-on aesthetic objects, whether it’s artwork or something that goes with the artwork. As a curator it’s my job to make sure as many humans as possible can engage with the things that we’re doing.” 

Well I thought, you can make your own world up

Veronica’s inventiveness tempered by her practical approach to curation is already clear.  What makes her programming and exhibition design so engaging is the way she considers the people who will be experiencing it. Her dry sense of humor and her kind suggestions for install (make sure to set up a staging table for yourself!) forecast a deep thoughtfulness and welcoming quality to our future shows at DVAA. 

Veronica Cianfrano (She/Her) - Gallery Director
Veronica@davinciartalliance.org

If you have questions about dvaa’s BLOG, please direct them to our ProGRAMMING COORDINATOR at saramae@davinciartalliance.org

Sara Mae Henke (They/Them) is a genderqueer writer raised on the Chesapeake Bay. Their creative writing and research orbits around horror and the surreal as it contextualizes gender. They are a 2023 Big Ears Music Festival Scholar and 2022 Tinhouse Summer Writing Workshops alum. Recently, they were a finalist for the Loraine Williams Prize and have work forthcoming or published in Passages North, the Georgia Review, the Offing, and FENCE. They write music as The Noisy and received their MFA from UT Knoxville. They are currently an Adjunct English Professor at Drexel and the Programming Coordinator at Da Vinci Art Alliance.