The Brooklyn-based arts organisation names the Creative Time curator Diya Vij to lead exhibitions, festivals and public programming from November 2025
Powerhouse Arts (PHA), Brooklyn’s purpose-built hub for arts fabrication and programming, has appointed Diya Vij as its new Vice President of Curatorial and Arts Programmes. She joins the organisation from Creative Time, where she served as Curator. Vij will assume the role on 3 November 2025.
The senior leadership position underscores PHA’s commitment to placing art at the centre of civic life and community well-being. Each year, the organisation supports thousands of artists, fabricators, educators and community members through its workshops and programming, contributing to New York’s broader creative economy.
In her new role, Vij will shape the vision and delivery of exhibitions, art fairs, festivals and public programmes designed to strengthen community engagement and expand access to the arts. She will work closely with PHA President Eric Shiner and the senior leadership team to chart future initiatives aligned with the organisation’s mission to empower creative expression.
Planned responsibilities include leading annual exhibitions, serving as artistic liaison for fairs and festivals, supporting residency and artist subsidy initiatives, and developing educational projects in partnership with PHA’s Learning and Engagement team.
Vij described her appointment as a chance to build on PHA’s collaborative ethos. “I am stepping into this new chapter energised by the prospect of collaborating across Powerhouse’s wide-ranging network of artists, curators, fabricators, and arts workers who together share a people-first vision of art as a site for exchange, engagement, and dialogue,” she said. “This role affords me the opportunity to carve out new opportunities for artists to present bold, experimental, and ambitious ideas rooted in community, not just for the immediate community in Gowanus, but for that of Brooklyn, New York, and beyond.”
“Powerhouse Arts is proud of its role as both a platform for artists and a catalyst for the communities that thrive around them,” said Eric Shiner, President of PHA. “In appointing a curatorial leader, we sought an individual whose ambition and commitment mirrors our own in connecting broad audiences, advancing ambitious artistic practices, and contributing meaningfully to New York’s cultural and economic vitality. Diya has demonstrated this shared zeal throughout her wide-spanning arts career.”
About Diya Vij
Diya Vij is a curator and cultural organiser whose career spans civic, institutional and non-profit roles. At Creative Time, she launched CTHQ, a gathering space for art and political engagement; established the R&D Fellowship for socially engaged artists; relaunched the Creative Time Summit; and realised several large-scale public art commissions.
Over the past 15 years, she has investigated the relationship between public art, politics and civic life in positions at the Queens Museum, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the High Line. She also co-curated the Counterpublic 2023 public art triennial in St Louis. Vij serves on the boards of the Laundromat Project, the Poetry Project (as Treasurer) and A Blade of Grass (as Co-Chair).
During her tenure at Creative Time, Vij worked with artists and collectives including New Red Order, Chloë Bass, Alisha B Wormsley and Kite. She curated 150 hours of performances, talks and workshops for Rashid Johnson’s Red Stage in Astor Place and organised a symposium for Charles Gaines’s The American Manifest: Moving Chains.
Through initiatives such as the R&D Fellowship, CTHQ and Creative Time Summit, she collaborated with more than 200 artists, among them Linda Goode Bryant, Guadalupe Maravilla, Carlos Motta, Stephanie Dinkins, Mary Mattingly, Raven Chacon, Shahzia Sikander and Molly Crabapple.
©2025 Powerhouse Arts
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