Ryan N. Dennis

Ryan N. Dennis

Program

CCL Class of 2019

Institution

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

Title

Senior Curator and Director of Public Initiatives

Residency

Brooklyn Museum

Mentor

Anne Pasternak, Brooklyn Museum

Ryan N. Dennis currently serves as the as the Senior Curator and Director of Public Initiatives at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. Previousely, she was the Chief Curator and Artistic Director of the Center for Art & Public Exchange (CAPE) at the Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA). Most recently, Dennis co-curated, with Jessica Bell Brown, the critically acclaimed exhibition, A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration, currently on view at Brooklyn Museum and traveling nationwide through 2024. Her recent projects include Leonardo Drew’s City in the Garden (2020), Betye Saar: Call & Response (2021), Dusti Bonge: Piercing the Inner Wall (2021) and organizing CAPE artist-in-residence Shani Peter’s Collective Care for Black Mothers and Caretakers (2022) with the local Jackson community. Before joining MMA, she served as the Curator and Programs Director at Project Row Houses (PRH) in Houston, where she worked with over 100 BIPOC artists to exhibit their work in PRH’s shotgun houses. She led the creation of the 2:2:2 Exchange Residency Program with the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago and established Project/Site, a temporary, site-specific, commission-based public art program. In 2017, she launched the PRH Fellowship with the Center for Art and Social Engagement at the University of Houston’s Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts. Dennis earned her Master’s degree in Arts and Cultural Management from Pratt Institute, focusing on Curatorial Practice. Her writings have appeared in online and print catalogs, journals, and international publications. She has been a visiting lecturer and critic at numerous art schools and institutions and has taught courses on community-based practices and contemporary art at the University of Houston. Dennis was a Class of 2019 Fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership, a program that offers leadership training to art museum curators. Recently she was the co-curator of the 2021 Texas Biennial, A New Landscape, A Possible Horizon (2021), and the guest art editor for Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts.

Articles Related to Ryan N. Dennis

2019 Fellowship_Composite Image (JPG)

2018-11-01

Center for Curatorial Leadership Announces 2019 Fellows

The Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL) has selected twelve curators for participation in the 2019 class of its annual Fellowship. Following the organization’s most competitive review process to date, the cohort chosen for the program will convene from January through May 2019. The program includes three weeks of in-session instruction, ... Read More >

2019 Fellowship_Group Photo Cropped (JPG)

2019-01-21

Program Highlights | 2019 Fellows Complete January Session of the CCL Fellowship

This January, the Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL) welcomed its twelfth class of Fellows to New York City for the beginning of their five-month Fellowship. Over the two-week intensive, they received instruction from Columbia Business School professors and met with leaders in the field, delving into different approaches to leadership ... Read More >

Core Advancement

2019-10-23

Dennis Carr (CCL 2019) appointed Chief Curator of American Art at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Dennis Carr (CCL 2019) has been named Chief Curator of American Art at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens!  Carr will join The Huntington from the MFA Boston, where he has served as the Carolyn and Peter Lynch Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture since 2007. While at the ... Read More >

Core Advancement

2020-01-27

René Morales (CCL 2019) Named Director of Curatorial Affairs and Chief Curator of The Pérez Art Museum Miami

René Morales (CCL 2019) has been named Director of Curatorial Affairs and Chief Curator of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), where he has been a member of the curatorial staff since 2005.  During his tenure at PAMM, Morales has curated over 50 exhibitions. Recent curatorial projects include Christo and Jeanne-Claude: ... Read More >

Core Advancement

2020-03-16

Ryan N. Dennis (CCL 2019) named Chief Curator and Artistic Director of the Mississippi Museum of Art's Center for Art and Public Exchange

Ryan N. Dennis (CCL 2019) has been named named Chief Curator and Artistic Director of the Mississippi Museum of Art's Center for Art and Public Exchange (CAPE).  Since 2017, Ryan has served as the Curator and Programs Director of Project Row Houses (PRH) in Houston, Texas. She joined Project Row Houses in ... Read More >

Core Advancement

2021-09-03

Johanna Burton (CCL 2019) Named Executive Director of LA MOCA

Johanna Burton (CCL 2019) has been named Executive Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles!  Since 2019, Burton has been the executive director of the Wexner Center for the Arts. Previously, she served as the Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Engagement at the New ... Read More >

Core Advancement

2021-11-23

René Morales (CCL 2019) named Chief Curator of Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

René Morales (CCL 2019) has been named Chief Curator of the MCA Chicago!  René is currently the director of curatorial affairs and chief curator at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). During his tenure at PAMM, Morales has curated over 50 exhibitions. Curatorial projects include Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Surrounded Islands, 1980–83 (2018), Dara Friedman: Perfect ... Read More >