Fall 2009
ROSELEE GOLDBERG
Founding Director and Curator, PERFORMA, New York
October 1 | 7:00 pm
Arthouse at the Jones Center
RoseLee Goldberg is an art historian, critic, curator and author whose book Performance Art from Futurism to the Present, first published in 1979, pioneered the study of performance art. Author of Performance: Live Art Since 1960, Goldberg is a frequent contributor to Artforum and other arts journals. She has lectured at the Architectural Association in London, California Institute of the Arts, Yale, Princeton and Tate Modern, among other venues, and has taught at New York University since 1987.
BILL ARNING
Director, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston
November 18 | 7:00 pm
George Washington Carver Museum & Cultural Center, Boyd Vance Theatre
Prior to joining the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in April 2009, Arning was the curator at MIT's List Visual Arts Center. There he organized such critically acclaimed exhibitions as America Starts Here - Ericson and Ziegler (2006), which was awarded first prize for best monographic show in a Boston museum by the International Association of Art Critics. Arning was a member of the curatorial team that organized MIT's Sensorium, a major project on how technology has altered the human senses. As a writer on art and culture, Arning's essays have been published in Time Out New York, Aperture, Modern Painters, The Village Voice, Art in America, Trans, Out, Honcho, and Parkett.
Spring 2010
HOU HANRU
Director of Exhibitions & Public Programs and Chair of the Exhibitions & Museum Studies program, San Francisco Art Institute; Curator, 2009 Biennale de Lyon
January 26 | 7:00 pm
George Washington Carver Museum & Cultural Center, Boyd Vance Theatre
San Francisco and Paris-based critic and curator Hou Hanru is one of the most respected professionals in the international contemporary art world.
Hou is known for his examinations of postmodern issues of nomadic identity, hybridity, and artists living in diaspora, what he calls “in-betweeness.” Okwui Enwezor, former Dean of the San Francisco Art Institute states: “A gifted curator and writer, and an astute intellectual, Hou is one of the most insightful and articulate curatorial thinkers today, whose work has had an enormous impact on how we understand the field of contemporary art globally.”
SINA NAJAFI
Editor, Cabinet, New York
March 11 | 7:00 pm
George Washington Carver Museum & Cultural Center, Boyd Vance Theatre
Sina Najafi is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Cabinet, a non-profit arts and culture magazine named “the secret best art magazine” by renowned art critic Jerry Saltz. Cabinet presents wide-ranging multi-disciplinary content in each issue through a variety of formats, including regular columns, essays, interviews, and special artist projects. Najafi maintains a commitment to a broad scope rather than “specializing” in one area and thus edits the magazine’s content to what is “of the moment,” emerging, or culture specific.
GARY CARRION-MURAYARI
Associate Curator, 2010 Whitney Biennial, New York
April 8 | 7:00 pm
George Washington Carver Museum & Cultural Center, Boyd Vance Theatre
Recently named one of T, The New York Times Style Magazine’s “Nifty 50,” Gary Carrion-Murayari has experienced a meteoric rise to prominence in the international contemporary art world. Born in Mt. Kisco, New York in 1980, Carrion-Murayari received a BA from Colgate University in art and art history in 2002. Having worked in the curatorial department at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York since 2003, specializing in contemporary art, film, and video, Carrion-Murayari was tapped to team up with guest curator Francesco Bonami to serve as Associate Curator of the 2010 Whitney Biennial. The Whitney Biennial is known for launching the careers of many young artists and defining the leading trends in the contemporary art world. That Carrion-Murayari was chosen to contribute to the signature exhibition alongside the seasoned voice of Bonami is a significant achievement for the young professional.