Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara
Assistant Director / Curator of Exhibitions
Elyse A. Gonzales is Assistant Director and Curator of Exhibitions at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara where she has worked since 2008. While at the Museum she has curated numerous collection exhibitions and organized several group shows including The Stumbling Present: Ruins in Contemporary Art (2012); Starting Here: A Selection of Distinguished Artists from UCSB (2014); Peake/Picasso (2013); and Shana Lutker, Anna Sew Hoy, and Brenna Youngblood: CB08, the California Biennial (2008). She is currently working on Suzanne Lacy & Pablo Helguera an exhibition scheduled to open in Fall 2017. She also initiated an Artist-in-Residence exhibition program, and has commissioned artists Eric Beltz, Ann Diener, Fran Siegel, Zoe Strauss, Stephen Westfall, and Bari Ziperstein to create new works in the Museum’s galleries. In February 2015 she was named a Santa Barbara County Arts Commissioner for District 1. Prior to working at the AD&A Museum, Gonzales was Assistant Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania (2001-2008) and Special Projects Assistant at the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA (2000-2001). Gonzales received an MA from Williams College in 2000 and a BA from the University of New Mexico in 1996.
Amy Landau (CCL 2017) has been named the Director of Education and Interpretation at the Fowler Museum at UCLA! Landau has served as Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Islamic and South & Southeast Asian Art at the Walters Art Museum since 2009. While at the Walters, Landau curated Pearls on a ... Read More >
Elyse A. Gonzales (CCL 2017) has been named Director of Ruby City, the contemporary art center that opened in October 2019. Ruby City houses the collection of the late artist and philanthropist Linda Pace in a David Adjaye-designed building in San Antonio, Texas. Gonzales joins Ruby City from the University ... Read More >
William Keyse Rudolph (CCL 2017) has been named Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Rudolph joins the Nelson-Atkins from the San Antonio Museum of Art, where he served as the co-interim director and the Andrew W. Mellon Chief Curator and Marie and Hugh Halff Curator ... Read More >
Elyse A. Gonzales (CCL 2017) has been named Director of Ruby City, the contemporary art center that opened in October 2019. Ruby City houses the collection of the late artist and philanthropist Linda Pace in a David Adjaye-designed building in San Antonio, Texas. Gonzales joins Ruby City from the University ... Read More >
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has named Naomi Beckwith (CCL 2017) Deputy Director and Chief Curator! Naomi has been at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago since 2011, most recently as Senior Curator. Prior to the MCA, Naomi was an associate curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Her numerous exhibitions include The ... Read More >
Sarah Meister (CCL 2017, MoMA ICI 2016) has been named Executive Director of the Aperture Foundation! Sarah Meister has been at The Museum of Modern Art since 1997 and became a Curator in the Department of Photography in 2009. She is the lead instructor for the online course Seeing Through Photographs on Coursera, ... Read More >
Highlights from the concluding weeklong intensive of the Center for Curatorial Leadership The Center for Curatorial Leadership’s (CCL) 2017 Fellows convened this May for a one-week intensive in New York City. As a culmination of their five months in the fellowship, these twelve inspired curators participated in a targeted selection ... Read More >
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 ... Read More >
Highlights from the two-week January intensive of the Center for Curatorial Leadership For two weeks in January, the Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL) hosted its tenth class of Fellows for their leadership intensive in New York City. A cohort of twelve curators from institutions across North America came together for ... Read More >