Join us for the final roundtable talk on institutional reformatting as part of Critical Transformations: A Forum on New Futures.

Thursday, December 3 at 4:00 PM PST
Free & Open to All – RSVP Here

Whether developing new and unexpected exhibition platforms such as Other Sights or collective research and development teams as in NAVEL’s Assemblies program, these artists, teachers, and curators have developed new structures for critical art production, in a way that prioritizes interdependence, non-hierarchical systems and information-sharing. This discussion will consider the many ways to reimagine “institutions” from the ground up.

Panelists:

Michael Holt, Co-Director, NAVEL and Alice Yuan Zhang, Co-Organizer, Virtual Care Lab
Caroline Woolard, Author of Making and Being and Artist 
Vanessa Kwan, Program Director, grunt, Curator/Producer, Other Sights and Artist
Moderated by Ceci Moss

Please note all Critical Transformations events will be recorded and published at a later date on this website.

About the Panelists:

Michael Holt (he/they) is an artist, organizer, and producer originally from Portland, Oregon and residing in Los Angeles, and is a Co-Founder and current Director of NAVEL. He is the co-host of POWERVERS, a podcast exploring queerness and identity, an independent manager of artist & choreographer Spenser Theberge, producer of Chris Cruse’s infamous underground rave SPOTLIGHT, and serves as performance curator and advisory board member for the Queer Biennial. From 2012-2015, Michael was the Assistant Director of Marketing at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He received his MA in Performing Arts Management from New York University and his BS in Business Management Marketing from Brigham Young University. Total Gemini.

Alice Yuan Zhang is an artist, designer, and program organizer, engaging in playful social and ecological futuring through mixed reality technology and collaborative space-making. She is the co-organizer of virtual care lab, a current resident at CultureHub, and the facilitator of Digital Matterealities, a Q3 NAVEL ASSEMBLY program, and studied at University of California, Berkeley.

Caroline Woolard is an American artist who, in making her art, becomes an economic critic, social justice facilitator, media maker, and sculptor. Woolard has catalyzed barter communities, minted local currencies, founded an arts-policy think tank, and created sculptural interventions in office spaces. Woolard has inspired a generation of artists who wish to create self-organized, collaborative, online platforms alongside sculptural objects and installations. Her work has been commissioned by and exhibited in major national and international museums including MoMA, the Whitney Museum, and Creative Time. She was the 2018–20 inaugural Walentas Fellow at Moore College of Art and Design and the inaugural 2019–20 Artist in Residence for INDEX at the Rose Museum, and a 2020-2021 Fellow at the Center for Cultural Innovation.

Vanessa Kwan (she/they) is an artist and curator with a focus on collaborative, site-specific and community-engaged practices, currently based in Vancouver Canada. Among other things, her artworks have included a geyser (with Erica Stocking), a garden best viewed by moonlight, and a series of events for sad people. At grunt gallery she manages residencies, exhibitions and special projects and is also curator/ producer at Other Sights for Artists’ Projects, an artist-run organization that curates and produces artworks for the public realm. She is a founding member of the arts collective Norma who were honoured with a City of Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for public art in 2012. She regularly writes and publishes on art and culture, and has recently led curated projects at venues across the Pacific Rim (Vancouver, Seoul, and Sydney) exploring artist-led creative exchange. Upcoming projects also include SPEAKER A, a permanent sound installation (with Theatre Replacement) and Houseplanters, a series of public sculptures commissioned by the City of Vancouver.

Ceci Moss is a curator, writer and educator based in Los Angeles, USA. She is the founder of Gas, a mobile, autonomous, experimental and networked platform for contemporary art. Her academic research addresses contemporary internet-based art practice and network culture. Her first book, Expanded Internet Art: Twenty-First Century Artistic Practice and the Informational Milieu, is released through the Bloomsbury series International Texts in Critical Media Aesthetics. Her writing has appeared in Rhizome, Art in America, ArtAsiaPacific, Artforum, The Wire, CURA, New Media & Society and various art catalogs. Previously, she was Assistant Curator of Visual Arts at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Senior Editor of the art and technology non-profit arts organization Rhizome, and Special Projects Coordinator at the New Museum. She is currently a Lecturer in Curatorial Practice at California College of the Arts and she has held teaching positions at the University of Southern California, Scripps College, the San Francisco Art Institute and New York University.

About Critical Transformations: A Forum on New Futures

We are living through unprecedented times that present the challenges of the pandemic, an economic recession, and rising fascism, alongside the opportunities of social justice, creative problem-solving, and bold thinking.

Curated by Ceci Moss and hosted by the Shumka Centre at Emily Carr University, Critical Transformations is a monthly series of online roundtable conversations that invites visionary artists, curators, activists, designers, architects, and arts organizers around the globe to discuss their work in creating groundbreaking new models for the arts sector.