The Curator’s Gender: Who Holds the Power?
This session examined how gender operates within curatorial frameworks and institutions, addressing structures of authority, voice, and representation.
How does a curator’s gender shape the exhibitions we see, the institutions that define the art world, and the historical narratives that endure? Beyond the role of artists, how does a curator’s gender and identity influence exhibition-making, institutional structures, and the shaping of art historical discourse?
Speakers: Monika Fabijanska (Independent art historian and curator; orchestrator of Women at War—named one of 2022’s best exhibitions by The Washington Post and Frieze), Heather Zises (Independent curator, writer, and art consultant; former exhibition coordinator at Pace Gallery and Phillips, founding member of Ninth Street Collective, and author of 50 Contemporary Women Artists), Pramodha Weerasekera (Sri Lankan curator, art writer, and feminist cultural programmer; former Assistant Curator of Education & Public Programmes at Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka, with publications in e-flux and Hyperallergic), Ruxmini Choudhury (Curator and researcher at Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka; bilingual translator whose practice engages decolonial methods, local archives, and LGBTQ+ cultural narratives), Manan Shah (Museologist, curator, and co-founder of Dastāvez Collective; Kashmir-born writer-curator exploring cultural identity, with articles in STIRworld and TAKE on Art), Prerna S.M. Jain (Founder and Director of APRE Art House, Mumbai; alumna of Christie’s Education, New York)