Marianne Hughes

Marianne Hughes came from Colorado to The New School to earn her MA in Fashion Studies. She was drawn to Parsons by its distinguished alumni and faculty and the special interdisciplinary nature of her program. Like many of her peers, Marianne took on a student job to supplement her living expenses and expand her educational opportunities.

“My university position gave me access to people in the higher ranks of culture I would never have had.”

—Marianne Hughes

The job turned out to be anything but ordinary. Her new worksite was The New School’s Vera List Center for Art and Politics, or VLC, a preeminent forum for cultural exploration.

The VLC is a nonprofit research organization and public center for art, culture, and politics, now celebrating its third decade with special programming. Since its founding at The New School, the VLC has offered engaging public programs, classes, and exhibitions, all of which probe pressing creative and political issues of our time. The center has awarded dozens of prizes and fellowships to local artists and fosters research that is changing the world.

“I think it was the center’s mission that really drew me in,” Hughes says of the VLC, “and it’s the ways in which it amplifies underrepresented voices through its programming by providing exhibition space, materials, funding, and mentorship, which I think many other, larger institutions don’t do—and the VLC does it in a really personal, hands-on way.”

Each year, the VLC selects several individuals from a pool of more than 300 applicants to receive a fellowship. Each fellow is awarded their own exhibition, as well as extensive support from and mentorship by the New School community.

Hughes has worked part-time for the VLC since August 2021 as a database management assistant, a role she says has enabled her to develop surprisingly useful, critical skills for her practice as a fashion studies scholar.

“Like much of my coursework, a lot of Vera List Center programming speaks to the moment and what is happening out in the world,” she says, citing the recent Black Quantum Futurism exhibition, which served as the focus of discussion in one of her fashion classes. “The conversations are nuanced—not just the ones happening on campus but also those in New York City and around the world. We really try to spotlight that complexity at the VLC.”

“Community artists and partners attend the center’s programs, but so do many of our donors and others who are committed to preserving New York City’s cultural life. So my VLC role complements my work as a research assistant in Fashion Studies. I’m able to see what people in the higher ranks of these cultural fields are thinking about different kinds of scholarship. What are they considering? What is relevant right now in this field?”

Hughes regards the VLC as a groundbreaking organization and sees opportunities for the center to broaden its work for wider impact.

“How can we scale up the fellowship?” she asks. “How can we do more, either by offering more fellowships or by providing more support for the work the fellows do with us?”

These questions hint at the kinds of ambitions that are cultivated at the intersection of creativity, politics, and cultural work and that are inspiring Hughes in both her studies and her work at the Vera List Center.