Pragmatic Positivity: The Cooper Hewitt and Head Hi's Alexandra Hodkowski on Public Programs, Curated Platforms, and Fostering Interdisciplinary Spaces
Alexandra’s portrait by Daniel Dorsa.
By Julia Gamolina
Alexandra Hodkowski’s career in cultural organizations spans over twenty years and has centered on supporting the work of contemporary artists, designers, and cultural organizations. In 2018, Alexandra co-founded Head Hi, a New York based hybrid space dedicated to art, design, and architecture publications and cultural programming. In 2023, she became the Curator of Public Programs at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, where she works to vision, develop, and implement adult public programs and projects of various scales and scopes and also leads the National Design Awards.
Prior to this, she worked at organizations including Creative Time; Queens Museum; The World Around; Headlands Center for the Arts; and Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. She holds an MA in Arts Administration from New York University and a BA in Art History from the University of Colorado. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Alexandra talks about her work centering around creativity and the public, advising those just starting their careers to make sure to get out to see things IRL.
JG: You have such an interesting perspective on the architecture and design industry as you're not only the co-founder of Head Hi, but as of last December, you're the Curator of Public Programs for the Cooper Hewitt. Congratulations! What are you planning for the rest of the year?
AH: The role is an exciting new chapter for me and at the museum. We have a new director, Maria Nicanor, whose work I have been following since the BMW Guggenheim Lab project. Her vision for the institution prioritizes public programming, and our Design Triennial is coming up this fall for which I am leading the public programs. Titled Making Home, it will be the seventh installment in the Design Triennial series, which was established in 2000 to address the most urgent topics of the time through a design lens.
The exhibition explores the concept of home, bringing together wide-ranging perspectives on how design impacts and transforms lived experiences in the U.S., U.S. Territories, and Tribal Nations. The three curators Michelle Joan Wilkinson, Christina L. De León, Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, and I have been hard at work determining the best formats to highlight the diverse range of perspectives and voices during a full year of programming. I can’t wait to share more.
Alexandra Hodkowski introducing The Daily Mirror performance, a live performance produced by Head Hi featuring the choreography of Wendy Perron and Morgan Griffin with film and photography by Babette Mangolte.
Coming back now to Head Hi—the space is so much more than a bookstore, it’s truly a cultural hub for us in the field, and for those outside of the field, to discover more about architecture and design. How and why did you start it?
Creating and fostering interdisciplinary spaces where one can go to be curious, surprised, and informally educated has, over time, revealed itself as my calling in life. I began working in a museum at the age of nineteen! However, it was in graduate school when the concept of alternative and artist-run spaces really clicked. I started researching the idea of “institution as medium,” or in other words, spaces that artists and designers independently build as their creative practice. I had no idea that I would one day co-create one. My partner artist Alvaro Alcocer and I have always loved the spontaneous dialogue, ideas, and inspiration that are found at independent, off-the-beaten path book, record, and coffee shops. What occurs in these hubs doesn’t happen in institutions, therefore the dialogue and happenings are somehow more raw, in the moment.
We started Head Hi with two exhibitions that responded to a planned natural gas pipeline off the coast of New York City which would have had major social and environmental consequences. We collaborated with local environmental organizations and an international group of artists to spread the word about the plans to build this underwater gas pipeline without the awareness of the residents of the area. Using the architecture of a small garage space that was lent to us for free and art as an effective way to communicate and bring people together, we put the space and art to social use. After the exhibitions, in 2018 we took a big risk and rented a small space a block from our apartment where Head Hi is today.
How has Head Hi evolved over the past seven years? What have you learned in running it?
We have found our stride as New York’s only independent bookstore that focuses on architecture and design, and that is woman and Latinx owned. We are not your typical bookstore with stacks and stacks of books. We have a selection of about one hundred and fifty books at a time, most of which have just been published. This gives us a snapshot of contemporary thought; this newness is our obsession. Another important part of what we do is to highlight the people who make the publications in our ongoing cultural programming.
We value the importance of having an independent cultural space dedicated to design and architecture. There are not many places that have formed a community of people that includes both those in the architecture field with those who are just curious about it. It is rewarding to see people from all different backgrounds talking about design and architecture to which we all contribute and experience whether we are architects and designers or not. There is so much we can learn from each other. Spaces like Head Hi are also where you can find an offering of voices that are not adequately represented elsewhere in larger institutions or platforms. But this environment is extremely fragile and it is hard to find the financial fortification we need to survive in a place with little funding for this type of experimentation.
“Creating and fostering interdisciplinary spaces where one can go to be curious, surprised, and informally educated has, over time, revealed itself as my calling in life.”
We’ll come back to this when we talk about challenges, but in the meantime, how did you arrive at your role with the Cooper Hewitt this position since starting Head Hi?
In 2023, we created the New York Architecture + Design Book Club, a lively public program and book subscription series that explores remarkable new titles in the field, and one that we co-organize with the design journal Untapped. The books’ authors and industry experts lead a discussion at each quarterly gathering, which seeks to build deeper connections between people, ideas, and the world in which we live. We have so much fun with it! We judge a book by its cover and look back to look forward through the book's themes.
This program became my introduction to the position I am now in at Cooper Hewitt. Last year, we selected the exhibition catalog for A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes for the book club. I was able to meet and work with the dedicated and incredible staff at the museum, including the Liebes exhibition curators Alexa Griffith Winton and Susan Brown, and learn more about their vision for public programming. I am very honored to now be their first ever Curator of Public Programs.
Tell me more about your earlier career experiences that led to Head Hi.
Besides Head Hi, other key experiences that have led to this position include working with Adam Lerner, the former Director at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. It was at MCA Denver that I helped introduce the Denver community to Lerner’s unique approach to museum programming, which is very open to all, and has a refreshing sense of humor to it.
In 2011, artist Tania Bruguera hired me as the coordinator for Immigrant Movement International, a long-term art project in the form of an artist-initiated socio-political movement produced jointly by Creative Time and the Queens Museum. Engaging both local and international communities, as well as working with social service organizations, elected officials, and artists focused on immigration reform, we examined growing concerns about the political representation and conditions facing immigrants. Alongside Bruguera, I planned and managed programs, conferences, events, open calls, and actions.
On the more specific design and architecture-oriented side of my career, I was the managing director of a major summit dedicated to increasing awareness about contemporary global architecture, environment, and design, and I worked for a collector for several years building a collection heavily focused on contemporary design. The role at Cooper Hewitt allows me to apply this experience and use it as a jumping-off point to try new iterations of public activations.
Head Hi bookstore, 146 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11205. Courtesy of Alexandra Hodkowski.
Installation photo of the 2024 Head Hi Lamp Show, an exhibition celebrating the joy of light with a curated presentation of lighting objects selected through an international open call. Since its inception in 2019, the Head Hi Lamp Show has become a global platform for collective participation and experimentation with light, design, and materials. Photo by Curtis Wallen.
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?
Biggest challenges, that’s an easy answer—money and the unknown. At Head Hi, the biggest challenges are always financially related. It is very difficult to make enough money selling books to keep the doors open, support staff, keep inventory, pay the taxes, rent, insurance, etc. But we continue! We are stubborn about our love of IRL spaces where one can explore and see, smell, taste, and hear something new. We can’t let the corporations take over and have the same big businesses everywhere. It's too boring and unsupportive.
Trial and error and my pragmatic positivity have gotten me through disappointments and setbacks. Ultimately, we are constantly thinking about what business model can accommodate an alternative architecture and design organization in 2024 and beyond. With real estate being one of the biggest costs, is leasing a space the best practice for our goals? Are there people out there that have the means to help support this need? Like architecture, the process of figuring this out is slow and requires consistent and steady work, which Alvaro and I are dedicated to.
What have you also learned in the last six months?
I have learned to push myself harder even when I think I have hit my maximum. This is the ultimate Head Hi.
“Go and do as much as you can in person. Go to events, talks, openings, parties, readings, and workshops. You never know who you will meet and what you can learn.”
Who are you admiring now and why?
As this platform is Madame Architect, instead of an individual, I’d like to list a constellation of mesdames in various fields that I admire in some way for their hard work and dedication and who, as a whole, have influenced my thinking lately: architect and author of the book Designing a Forest Lindsey Wikstrom; musician, DJ, writer, and co-founder of Love Injection Barbie Bertisch; community organizer and founder of One Love Community Fridge Asmeret Berhe-Lumax; curator of Latino Design here at the Cooper Hewitt Christina L. De León; curator of MoMA PS1 Ruba Katrib; musician and DJ Kim Ann Foxman; designer and researcher Mindy Seu; poet Jen Fisher; gallerist and publisher of philosophy at Sequence Press Katherine Pickard; cinematographer Babette Mangolte; Attorney General of New York Letitia James; filmmaker Sofia Coppola; musician and composer Terre Thaemlitz; and architect Tatiana Bilbao.
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And what does success in that look like to you?
The world is changing so quickly, and we constantly need to move from one problem or idea to another. Things are too fleeting to answer about just one impact or a core mission, which seem so permanent. I do know that I am most useful and comfortable being in service to others. My work has always centered around creativity and the public. I like to help make the idea, the vision happen, whether it is mine or someone else’s.
Until recently, for me, success looked like being responsible. Now, it is all about communication. The root meaning of the word curate is to care for. In that sense, I believe my impact is shaped when I care for people and my core mission is to create a platform for them to communicate their work and thoughts.
Alexandra Hodkowski at Head Hi. Photo by Jonathan Hokklo.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
Go and do as much as you can in person. Go to events, talks, openings, parties, readings, and workshops. You never know who you will meet and what you can learn. Get to know the capacities—related not only to money but also attention, education, and time—of the person or organization you are working for before committing. That research will help you understand their motivation and stability and in-turn better manage your expectations. In environments that are more male- dominated, be yourself!