Gochman Family Collection Names Phipps as Curator as It Prepares a Transit-Accessible Public Space for Contemporary Native Art
A private collection best known for keeping contemporary Native art in motion is taking a more public-facing turn. The Gochman Family Collection has appointed Phipps as curator as it develops a new space designed to be reachable by public transit, a practical detail that signals a broader ambition: to widen access and deepen engagement beyond the usual art-world corridors.
Phipps arrives with a long view of the collection. “I’ve been aware of the Gochman Family Collection for a number of years through my work with artists in the collection, including during the organisation of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map,” Phipps said, referencing the influential 2023 Whitney retrospective devoted to Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation.
For Phipps, the appeal of the role is rooted in the day-to-day mechanics of curatorial practice rather than institutional prestige. “What drew me to the role was the chance to focus on the parts of curatorial work that excite me most — supporting living artists and helping them realise their visions,” Phipps said.
That emphasis aligns with the collection’s stated mission. Gochman has framed the project as an effort to prevent works from disappearing into private interiors. “One of our goals has always been to make sure the work doesn’t live quietly in private spaces but continues to circulate and be shared with new audiences,” Gochman said, adding: “Contemporary Native artists are producing some of the most compelling work today.”
The stakes are structural as much as they are programmatic. The contemporary Native art community in the US spans 577 federally recognised tribes and is both geographically dispersed and aesthetically varied. Yet in New York City and other major hubs, opportunities for Native curators and sustained public exhibition platforms remain limited. By prioritizing circulation and visibility, the Gochman Family Collection positions itself as one response to those gaps, with the new transit-accessible space intended to invite broader public participation.
Pierce underscored that meaningful support often looks different from the traditional markers of success. “Supporting Native artists doesn’t necessarily mean getting collected by the Museum of Modern Art or Whitney, but actually having ongoing, continual support,” Pierce said. “Hopefully the Gochman Family Collection is one of the places that can make that happen.”
The appointment and the forthcoming space arrive amid a wider recalibration in how institutions and the market engage with Indigenous art. Recent coverage has tracked a range of developments, from Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s final curatorial project at the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Jersey to a landmark gift of 90 works of contemporary Indigenous art to Crystal Bridges Museum and Art Bridges, as well as Phillips’s selling exhibition “New Terrains” and a major donation of 150 works by Indigenous artists to New York Historical.
Against that backdrop, the Gochman Family Collection’s next chapter reads less like a rebrand than a commitment to infrastructure: curatorial leadership focused on living artists, and a public-facing venue designed to make seeing the work easier — not rarer — for the audiences it hopes to reach.
