Project for Empty Space (PES) is turning fifteen! To celebrate this milestone, the organization is excited to host its annual fête, the Badass Art Woman Awards, in splendid form with a theme of La Resilience. This year’s soiree will be held Monday, September 29, 2025, from 7 - 10 pm at the Angel Orensanz Foundation in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
La Resilience takes inspiration from women who have created radically nurturing spaces for artists to thrive, and done so despite troubled times. These women are educators, gallerists, and residency organizers. They are mothers, grandmothers, and nurturers. They make sure artists have what they need to thrive at every stage of their careers. This year’s honorees are Dr. Deborah Willis, Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, Ebony L. Haynes, Senior Director and Curator, 52 Walker, and Helen Toomer, Founder, Stoneleaf Retreat and Upstate Art Weekend and Co-Founder of Art Mamas Alliance.
As a special twist for the fifteenth anniversary, PES has asked each recipient to name five women they consider exemplary arts workers in the field. These fifteen women will be recognized during a special cocktail hour before the main dinner event.
In honor of our 15th anniversary, Project for Empty Space is launching the “15 at 15” Anniversary Campaign—an exclusive opportunity for visionary funders to directly support our mission of championing socially-engaged art. We are inviting 15 partners to commit to sponsoring a table at our celebration event at a minimum of $15,000 each. This high-impact evening will amplify our collective achievements, elevate the artists and communities we serve, and raise critical funds to power the next 15 years of bold, transformative programming.
To explore sponsorship opportunities, alternative payment methods, or if you have any questions, please contact Lucia Roldan at lucia@projectforemptyspace.org.
About the Honorees:
Deborah Willis, Ph.D. is University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She has affiliated appointments with the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Social & Cultural Analysis, and the Institute of Fine Arts, where she teaches courses on Photography & Imaging, iconicity, and cultural histories visualizing the black body, women, and gender. She is the founding director of NYU’s Center for Black Visual Culture/Institute of African American Affairs. Her research examines photography’s multifaceted histories, visual culture, the photographic history of Slavery and Emancipation, contemporary women photographers, and beauty.
She is the author of The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship and Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present, among others. Dr. Willis’ curated exhibitions include: “Framing Moments in the'' Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, and "Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory'' FotoFocus.
Dr. Willis was awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship and was a Richard D. Cohen Fellow in African and African American Art, Hutchins Center, Harvard University; a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, and an Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. Fellow. She was the Robert Mapplethorpe Photographer in Residence of the American Academy in Rome and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a recipient of the Don Tyson Prize for the Advancement of American Art by the Crystal Bridges Museum in 2022; was named the Mary Lucille Dauray Artist-in-Residence by the Norton Museum of Art and taught her a Master Class titled Home, Reimagining Interiority at Anderson Ranch in 2023.
Ebony L. Haynes is a writer and curator from Toronto, Canada. She is presently based in New York where she is senior director at David Zwirner and leads the gallery’s 52 Walker space in Tribeca. Haynes sits on the boards of Artists Space (New York) and the New Art Dealers Alliance. She also runs Black Art Sessions, an online “school” that offers free professional practice classes to Black students worldwide.
Helen Toomer is a curator, arts advocate, and founder of several arts initiatives, including STONELEAF RETREAT, an artist residency focused on women and families; upbringing, a project space in Kingston, New York; and UPSTATE ART WEEKEND, an annual event that connects arts organizations across the Hudson Valley. She is also the co-founder of Art Mamas Alliance, a support network for parents in the arts. She has held leadership roles at a number of prominent art fairs, including Photofairs New York, the IFPDA Print Fair, Collective Design Fair, and PULSE Contemporary Art Fair. She co-founded the contemporary art gallery toomer labzda in New York City and has lectured widely. She currently serves on the advisory committees of the Dorsky Museum and Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York.