Center for Curatorial Leadership Announces 2017 Fellows

Twelve Curators Announced for Tenth Annual Intensive Training Program

The Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL) has announced its tenth class of curatorial fellows as the organization celebrates one decade of training prepared and inspired museum leaders. The 2017 class includes twelve esteemed curators from across North America and signals the participation of more than 100 Fellows in the CCL core program over the past ten years. A committee of museum directors and CCL alumni selected the participants from the most competitive and diverse applicant pool to date. The incoming class is comprised of pioneering curators whose professional backgrounds and curatorial vision demonstrate a commitment to collaboration, inclusivity, and scholarly excellence. The program begins on January 8, 2017 in New York City and continues through May with a range of training modules, leadership exercises, and organizational initiatives.

Since 2008, CCL has prepared an active network of alumni to assume greater leadership responsibilities and effect change in their institutions, communities, and beyond. This year, Fellows join the program from a variety of museum types and sizes, ranging from historic private collections to university art museums, spaces devoted to modern and contemporary art to encyclopedic institutions. As a whole, the 2017 Fellows are unprecedented in their keen eye towards engaged and canon-breaking exhibition practices. Last year, Amy S. Landau, Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Walters Art Museum, mounted the exhibition Pearls on a String: Artists, Patrons, and Poets at the Great Islamic Courts, which shifted perceptions of the Islamic world through a targeted use of biography and interpersonal networks. Sophie Hackett, Curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario, employs photography to investigate histories of queer culture and connect marginalized communities throughout Toronto. Naomi Beckwith, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, champions an array of emerging artists and has organized seminal exhibitions investigating black cultural identity, including the acclaimed 30 Seconds off an Inch and The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now. Thomas J. Lax, Associate Curator in the Department of Media and Performance Art at The Museum of Modern Art, has worked with and written on a diverse group of international artists whose practices push the boundaries of museum and medium. Across this tenth cohort, the paradigm for discursive and culturally responsive curatorial approaches promises to engage models of leadership that expand the possibilities and relevance of museums in the 21st-century.

CLASS OF 2017:

Naomi Beckwith, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL

Alison Gass, Chief Curator and Associate Director for Exhibitions and Collections, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Elyse A. Gonzales, Assistant Director / Curator of Exhibitions, Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA

Sophie Hackett, Curator, Photography, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada

Emily G. Hanna, Senior Curator, Dept. Arts of Africa and the Americas Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL

Amy S. Landau, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD

Thomas J. Lax, Associate Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Sarah Meister, Curator, Department of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Jen Mergel, Robert L. Beal, Enid L. Beal and Bruce A. Beal Senior Curator of Contemporary Art and Interim Chair of the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Christina Nielsen, William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection and Exhibition Program, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA

William Keyse Rudolph, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Curator and the Marie and Hugh Halff Curator of American Art, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX

Pierre Terjanian, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Curator in Charge, Department of Arms and Armor, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

For more information about the 2017 Fellows, click here.

Contact:
Joseph Shaikewitz
Center for Curatorial Leadership
646.405.8067
joseph.shaikewitz@artcurators.org