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Details emerge regarding the Italian government denying visas for three Ghanaian curators at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale

2023-05-22T15:47:00-04:00

Controversy stirred at the Venice Architecture Biennale after Italian government officials refused visas to three key Ghanaian curators who had planned on entering the country to attend the exhibition ahead of its opening on Saturday, May 20.

On May 19, The Art Newspaper's Tom Seymour reported on the latest details on the story first mentioned by Guardian critic Oliver Wainwright via Twitter on May 10th.

Sickening to hear this from the curator of this year's Venice Biennale, Lesley Lokko – large numbers of participants from Africa have been denied visas to attend: pic.twitter.com/Pn5ASUgev9
— Olly Wainwright (@ollywainwright) May 10, 2023

The drama began after the Italian ambassador to Ghana denied entry permissions to the traveling contingent, reportedly accusing curator Lesley Lokko of trying to bring three “non-essential” workers into the EU’s Schengen economic zone.

Lokko, who is herself of Ghanaian descent, responded to decry the actions as the motivations of a right-wing caree...

Writing Women Into History: A Curated Reading List Tackles the 'Imbalance' of Female Voices Within Architecture

2021-03-08T18:00:00-05:00

With information available at our fingertips, discovering resources like a list of female architects, for example, should be a breeze. However, like most professions, these texts and resources were often written and curated by male writers. In 2021, female writers and curators continue to reclaim their place within academia, architectural history, and professional practice by writing themselves into the canon they have been excluded from.

If you look up "female architecture writers" on Google, the first search result is a blog created by architect, writer, researcher, and academic Dr. Harriet Harriss titled "Women Who Write Architecture."

Featured on Archinect: New website champions the remarkable contributions made by 50 pioneering women in architecture. Alice Constance Austin, one of the women featured on the site, showing model of house to Llano del Rio colonists, May 1, 1917. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

In 2019 I interviewed Dr....

2019 Guest Curators at A+D Museum Announced

2019-01-09T18:48:00-05:00

What is the role of curation in today’s architecture & design disciplinary framework? The guest curator program aims to produce a conversation through making & curating that begins to analyze traditional modes and models of curating architecture & design.

The Guest Curator Program was motivated by the A+D’s desire to provide an opportunity for emerging voices to collaborate, create, and experiment alongside the museum’s chief curator on contemporary modes of curation, media, and untapped mediums. The Program is an evolving body of professionals and academics from different backgrounds gathered in the effort to initiate conversations on how to expand upon and rupture traditional modes of curating architecture and design.

With this particular rotation, the museum is thrilled to focus on new media and modes of expression and how they may intersect with classic curatorial techniques, and emerging themes in design, architecture, and consumption. The 2019 guest curators are Alessio Granci...

The Chicago Architecture Biennial announces Sepake Angiama and Paulo Tavares as co-curators of the 2019 Biennial

2018-05-15T13:10:00-04:00

The Chicago Architecture Biennial has announced that curator and educator Sepake Angiama, and architect and urbanist Paulo Tavares will be joining the curatorial team of the 2019 Biennial, taking place next year. The co-curators will be working with the visionary curator and writer Yesomi Umolu, who was selected as the Artistic Director of the city's third biennial back in March.

Angiama, who recently served as Head of Education for Documenta 14, has devised education programs for a number of leading international institutions, including Tate Modern & Hayward Gallery, London. Her work centers around discursive practices, the social framework, and how we shape and form our experiences in understanding the world. As a recent fellow at basis voor actuele kunst, she conducted a year-long research into intersectional feminism and science fiction.

Brazilian architect Paulo Tavares' work is concerned with the relations between conflict and space as they intersect within the multi-scalar ar...

Chief curators for the 2019 Oslo Architecture Triennale are announced

2017-12-19T15:46:00-05:00

After a yearlong search and an open Call for Curator, the 2019 Oslo Architecture Triennale has finally selected a winning proposal for the upcoming event. The jury has picked the curatorial team comprised of Interrobang founder, Maria Smith; Canadian designer educator and Interrobang Associate, Matthew Dalziel; British critic and think tank director, Phineas Harper; and Norwegian urban researcher and artist, Cecilie Sachs Olsen.

Chosen from 71 submissions and entitled "Common Futures," the theme questions the unbridled growth and rapid pace of industrialization underwent by societies throughout the 20th century. The proposal posits instead the alternative concept of Degrowth, an economic ideology that questions infinite economic growth as the one-way future for the whole of humanity.

"With this concept, the Triennale could be a platform to establish an understanding of a potential architecture of degrowth: defining it, questioning it and challenging both architects, architecture c...

DS+R, Studio Gang, Keller Easterling among exhibitors selected for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

2017-09-12T21:03:00-04:00

The U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, titled Dimensions of Citizenship, is further taking shape: the curatorial team — announced just two weeks ago and comprised of Mimi Zeiger, Niall Atkinson, and Ann Lui — today revealed a line-up of the seven pavilion exhibitors:

Amanda Williams & Andres L. Hernandez
Chicago, IL

PXSTL: Williams and Hernandez won the 2016 design-build competition. Image courtesy of Michael B. Thomas / Pulitzer Arts Foundation.

Design Earth
Cambridge, MA

Pacific Aquarium. Oslo Architecture Triennale, After Belonging, 2016. Project Team: El Hadi Jazairy + Rania Ghosn. Reid Fellenbaum, Ya Suo, Jia Weng, Shuya Xu, Saswati Das, with initial contributions from Rixt Woudstra. Image courtesy of DESIGN EARTH

Diller Scofidio + Renfro
New York, NY

The Shed, View from 30th Street looking northwest, Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group. Image courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group

Estudio Teddy Cruz...

'Unbuilding walls': GRAFT Announced as Curators of the German Pavilion at the Architecture Biennale 2018

2017-08-17T13:07:00-04:00

Today the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) announced that the curators of the German Pavilion at the Architecture Biennale 2018 will be Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz and Thomas Willemeit of GRAFT together with Marianne Birthler. The architects were selected by the ministry on the recommendation of the selection committee for their submission to the open competition entitled “UNBUILDING WALLS”, which responds to current debates on nations, protectionism and division.

As the world grows together, walls are increasingly being discussed and built that divide people from one another. Walls can denote division, power and exclusion, but also protection.

In 2018, Germany will be reunified for 28 years – exactly as long as the inner German border wall (1961-1989) existed. In the German Pavilion, GRAFT and Marianne Birthler take this parallel as an opportunity to explore the effects of division and the process of healing as a...

Museum of Arts and Design Appoints Shannon Stratton as New Chief Curator

2015-04-02T22:00:00-04:00

Lewis Kruger, Chairman of the Board of the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), today announced the appointment of Shannon Stratton to the position of William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator, effective June 2015. In this role, Stratton will work closely with Nanette L. Laitman Director Glenn Adamson to oversee the Museum’s diverse exhibition program and collections, foster relationships with artists and designers, and develop new strategies to engage contemporary audiences.

Stratton joins MAD after twelve years as the founding director of Three Walls, "a Chicago-based contemporary arts organization that presents both exhibitions and public programs, and provides grants and resources to artists and other organizers through projects like The Propeller Fund and PHONEBOOK." She is also an independent curator and researcher, in particular of fiber and material studies as well as artist-led organizations.

According to a statement released by the Chairman of MAD's board, "Shannon brings a bold curatorial vision to MAD, combining energetic new thinking with leadership skills honed over twelve years as the founder of a non-profit art space."

"It is with great enthusiasm that I join the team at the Museum of Arts and Design in imagining and implementing a new curatorial vision for this historic and singular institution," Stratton states. “MAD is a striking example of what a museum can be: from its scale and location to its remarkable combination of exhibitions an...