Dozens of Curators to Assemble for Conference on Collective Memory at Expo Chicago

More than 200 curators, museum officials, and foundation heads are set to convene at the Expo Chicago art fair in April for two summits—one intended for directors, the other for curators. Both events will take place during the fair, which runs from April 11 to 14.

Under the title “Curating and The Commons,” the curators’ event will include more than 80 speakers addressing how communities shape their past, present, and future. The organization Independent Curators International is organizing the event with Expo Chicago.

Archives, collective memory, and the role of the arts will inform these talks. Among them is a keynote by Miguel A. López, whose past activities have included directing TEOR/ética in Costa Rica. He is also currently at work on this year’s edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art.

“In a moment where the art power structures and the traditional role of the curator are being redefined radically, it is vital to keep creating more spaces for pause, self-reflection, and listening to what our previous and current engagements are teaching us,” López said in a statement.

The three-day Directors Summit will be organized in partnership with Jill Snyder, a consultant who formerly directed the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, and will include a keynote from Louise Bernard, the head of the Obama Presidential Center Museum, which is due to open in Chicago in 2025.

This is the third time that the fair has hosted the fair’s Directors Summit, and the tenth that the curators’ event has been staged. It is, however, the first time that a curatorial conference will be held on-site at the fair, at the Navy Pier.

Expo Chicago artistic director Kate Sierzputowski called this development “a natural extension of the program that will continue the initiative’s reach and impact beyond the selected cohort” in a statement.