Curatorial Forum
EXPO CHICAGO is pleased to announce our eleventh annual Curatorial Forum, co-organized with Independent Curator’s International (ICI), in alignment with the 12th edition of the fair April 24-27, 2025. The Curatorial Forum, offers mid-career and established curators working independently or with an institutional affiliation the opportunity to engage with their peers and explore significant issues in the field at EXPO CHICAGO.
For the second year, EXPO CHICAGO and Independent Curators International (ICI) are thrilled to present a free, public curatorial conference as part of the annual Curatorial Forum at EXPO CHICAGO. Building a Cathedral, our 2025 curatorial conference theme, leans into the question of what’s next for cultural institutions that remain in need of reform: How can cultural workers adopt a long-term view to not only meet the needs of today, but also build lasting foundations for future generations? The two-day program of talks takes the metaphor of cathedral construction to ask how our approach to curatorial work, and to one another, changes when we operate under this longer timeframe. What might it look like if one generation focuses on preparing the site, the next on pouring a foundation, so the following can take up the work of construction?
The 2025 Curatorial Forum is co-produced by EXPO CHICAGO and ICI, and made possible, in part, by the generous support of 21c Museum Hotel Chicago, Bloomberg Connects, the Joyce Foundation, Teiger Foundation; with additional support by UAP | Urban Art Projects.
2025 Curatorial Forum Participants:
Sam Adams
Ellen Johnson '33 Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College
Kathleen Ash-Milby
Curator of Native American Art, Portland Art Museum
Laura Augusta
Director and Chief Curator, Blaffer Art Museum
Jessica Bell Brown
Curator and Department Head for Contemporary Art, Baltimore Museum of Art
Rian Crane
Independent Curator, Organizer, and Post-Disciplinary Performance Artist
Vivian Crockett
Allen and Lola Goldring Curator, New Museum
Jungmin Cho
Curator, White Noise
Karen Comer-Lowe
Curator-in-Residence, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art
Patricia Lee Daigle
Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
Robyn Farrell
Senior Curator, The Kitchen
Claire Gilman
Aquavella Curator and Department Head Modern and Contemporary Drawings, The Morgan Library
Julieta González
Head of Exhibitions, The Wexner Center for the Arts
Alana Hernandez
Senior Curator + CALA Alliance Curator of Latinx Art, ASU Art Museum
Albert Heta
Co-founder, Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina
Frauke Josenhans
Curator, Moody Center for the Arts
Bana Kattan
Curator and Associate Head of Exhibitions, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
Alisha Kerlin
Executive Director, Head Curator, Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)
Renan Laru-an
Independent Curator and Theorist
Kalaija Mallery
Executive Director, The Luminary
Camila Marambio
Curadora de Nuevas Perspectivas, Para la Naturaleza
Kelli Morgan
Founding Executive Director & CEO, These Museum Streets; Black Artists Archive
Ceci Moss
Director, Mandeville Art Gallery (MAG); Professor of Practice in Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego
Laura Mott
Chief Curator, Cranbrook Art Museum
Margarita Rosa
Arts Leadership Praxis, Studio Museum in Harlem
Elisabeth Sherman
Senior Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Collections, International Center of Photography
Anne Collins Smith
Chief Curator, New Orleans Museum of Art
TK Smith
Curator, Arts of Africa and the African Diaspora, Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University
Victoria Sung
Phyllis C. Wattis Senior Curator, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
Yina Jiménez Suriel
Adjunct Curator of the 14th Bienal do Mercosul (2025); Curator of The Current IV (2023-2025) by TBA21-Academy and Associate Editor of Contemporary And (C&) for Latin America and the Caribbean
Joanna Szupinska
Senior Curator, California Museum of Photography (CMP) at the University of California, Riverside (UCR)
Robin Williams
Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, University of Michigan Museum of Art
Jared Quinton
Emily Hall Tremaine Associate Curator, Contemporary Art, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Camille Bacon*
Writer, Jupiter Magazine
Wisdom Baty*
Founder, Wild Yams
Romi Crawford*
Art Historian, Professor, Writer, Curator, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC); The New Art School Modality
Nnaemeka Ekwelum*
Independent Curator
Gareth Kaye*
Independent Curator, Writer
Alyssa Martinez*
Collaborator, Wild Yams
Jack Schneider*
Assistant Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
(*denotes Chicago Assembly participants)
INDEPENDENT CURATORS INTERNATIONAL
Independent Curators International (ICI) supports the work of curators to help create stronger art communities through experimentation, collaboration and international engagement. Curators are arts community leaders and organizers who champion artistic practice; build essential infrastructures and institutions; and generate public engagement with art. Our collaborative programs connect curators across generations, and across social, political and cultural borders. They form an international framework for sharing knowledge and resources — promoting cultural exchange, access to art and public awareness for the curator’s role.
