Yona Backer

Backer provides strategic planning and fundraising counsel to cultural leaders of the nonprofit sector.  With a specialization in Board Development, Governance, Capacity Building, Estate Management and Program Development and Evaluation, her client roster includes New York City's leading arts and culture organizations.

Since 2011, Backer has been managing the estate of Alvin Baltrop (1948-2004), a photographer best known for documenting the architecture of and life at the New York Piers. Backer is also the founder of Third Streaming, an interdisciplinary art space in downtown Manhattan (2010-2014) dedicated to experimental art. Much of her work is situated at the intersection of art and social justice.

Prior to launching her consultancy, Yona Backer served as Senior Program Officer at The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Director of Visual Arts at the Americas Society and Council of the Americas and as Director of Throckmorton Fine Art in New York.

Backer holds a Masters in Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University. Her writing has been published in magazines and art publications including, Radical Presence, Black Performance in Contemporary Art, The apexart Fellowship, An Experiment in Vertical Cultural Integration and Condition Report: Symposium on Building Art Institutions in Africa. Born in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Backer is now based in New York City.