Kelsey Halliday Johnson
Kelsey Halliday Johnson (she/they) is a writer, artist, organizational strategist, and eco-feminist living in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. She works as the Executive Director of the multi-disciplinary visual and performing art organization SPACE in Portland.
Kelsey has worked as a presenter and curator with a consistent dedication for championing under-recognized artists and intersectional values.
Prior to SPACE, Kelsey worked in curatorial and advancement capacities for the James A. Michener Art Museum, Vox Populi Gallery, Locks Gallery, independent curator Marianne Bernstein, and her own independent multi-site curatorial projects; as well as gaining significant administrative experience at Blind Spot Magazine, the Penn Museum, and WPRB 103.3FM. Her curatorial work has been featured in Artforum, Art in America, and was a finalist for the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) Awards. Kelsey proudly started her career working art supply and photography retail for eight years.
She is a graduate of Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Wesleyan University, and has taught at a range of colleges and universities as well as Interlochen Arts Academy. Her writing has been published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, Locks Art Publications, Title Magazine, Performa, Studio Magazine from the Studio Museum in Harlem, Common Field, and Mural Arts Philadelphia, among others.
Kelsey enjoys tinkering with vintage cameras, ecological and architectural restoration projects, gardening, volunteering, and storytelling media of all kinds.
Sarah Kanouse
Sarah Kanouse (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and critical writer examining the political ecology of landscape and space. Migrating between video, photography, and performative forms, her expanded nonfiction media projects shift the visual dimension of landscape to allow hidden stories of environmental and social transformation to emerge. Her solo and collaborative creative work—most notably with Compass and the National Toxic Land/Labor Conservation Service—has been presented through the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Documenta 13, the Museum of Contemporary Art-Chicago, Krannert Art Museum, Cooper Union, Smart Museum, and numerous academic and artist-run venues. Her writings on landscape, ecology and contemporary art have appeared in Acme, Leonardo, Parallax, and Art Journal and numerous edited volumes. A 2019-2020 fellow at the Rachel Carson Center at Ludwig Maximilians Universität, she is Associate Professor of Media Arts in the Department of Art + Design at Northeastern University.
TK Smith
TK Smith (he/him/his) is a curator, writer, and cultural historian. Currently, he is a doctoral student in the History of American Civilization program at the University of Delaware, where he researches art, material culture, and the built environment. He received his Master of Arts in American Studies and his Bachelor of Arts in English and African American Studies, with a certificate in Creative Writing from Saint Louis University. He has written for Art in America, the Brooklyn Rail, and ART PAPERS, where he is a contributing editor. In 2021, he was invited to be the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Vashon Artist Residency. In 2022, he was a recipient of an Andy Warhol Writers Grant for short form writing. Smith was Monument Lab’s 2022-2023 writer-in-residence. Most recently, Smith completed a curatorial residency on behalf of the Barnes Foundation at Yinka Shonibare’s G.A.S. Residency in Lagos, Nigeria.
Erika Umali
Erika Umali (she/her/hers) is the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston’s first Curator of Collections where she leads strategy around collection development and practices, as well as bringing visibility to the ICA’s collection through focused exhibitions and programming. Previously she served as the inaugural Assistant Curator of Collections at the Brooklyn Museum where she supported collecting strategies and shepherded thousands of acquisitions. There, she co-curated Jeffrey Gibson: When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks. Her work focuses on cross-cultural exchange, accessibility within cultural institutions, engaging local and source communities, and decolonizing practices.
Umali received her B.A. in anthropology from Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts, with a focus in the art and material culture of Native North America and an M.A. in museum studies from New York University.