Working in the Art World: A Conversation with Yiran Chi (MAPH '22) and Leah Pires

Working in the Art World: A Conversation with Yiran Chi (MAPH '22) and Leah Pires

Workshop
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CWAC lounge
Add to Calendar 2023-04-28 11:00:00 2023-04-28 12:30:00 Working in the Art World: A Conversation with Yiran Chi (MAPH '22) and Leah Pires How do you get your foot in the door of the art world and curatorial work? Where should you look for internship and job opportunities? What are entry-level positions in museums and galleries like on a day-to-day basis? What does it mean to be an independent curator? What should you look out for as you search for jobs and evaluate opportunities? What are the benefits and challenges of this line of work?  Join Yiran Chi (MAPH '22) and Leah Pires (MAPH/Art History faculty) for an informal conversation about working in the art world. We will discuss these questions and offer insights based on our experiences. There will be ample time for group discussion and you are welcome to bring your questions and ideas to the conversation.  This event is especially for MAPH students and graduating Art History majors. Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to leahpires@uchicago.edu by April 25.   Meet in the CWAC lounge for refreshments Weather permitting, we will gather outside CWAC. For MAPH students and senior Art History majors — Yiran Chi (they/she) currently works at the National Gallery of Art as the John Wilmerding Intern in American Art, contributing to Curatorial and Catalogue Raisonné projects related to Mark Rothko. During their nine-month internship, Yiran has been independently curating the rehang of the Rothko Tower Gallery, a long-term collection installation probing the interplay of space and bodies in Rothko’s paintings. Yiran graduated from the University of Chicago in June 2022 with an M.A. degree in the Humanities. Prior to that, they got their B.A. degree in Art History and Film and Media Studies from Northwestern University. Yiran researches on the history and theory of new media art, with a focus on examining moving images at the intersection of contemporary art and computational media through the lens of feminist and queer theories. Previously, Yiran has worked in curatorial and research positions at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, The Drawing Center, White Columns, and Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. Leah Pires (she/her) is an art historian and curator whose work focuses on the politics of representation in modern and contemporary art. Her book project Finessing the Frame looks at how artists envisioned structural change in the New York art world of the 1970s and 1980s. Alongside her scholarly research, she has curated several exhibitions of contemporary art, including Interior Garden (Museum Reinickendorf, Berlin), Finesse (Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York), and The Point Is To Exchange It (Shanaynay, Paris). She has authored catalogue essays on the work of B. Ingrid Olson, Lucy McKenzie, and Carissa Rodriguez, among others, and her criticism has been published in Triple Canopy, 4 Columns, and Art in America. Currently Assistant Instructional Professor and coordinator of the Curatorial Option in the University of Chicago’s MA Program in the Humanities and Department of Art History, she holds a PhD in Art History from Columbia University and is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program. CWAC lounge Department of Art History drupal@seastar.uchicago.edu America/Chicago public
Working in the Art World

How do you get your foot in the door of the art world and curatorial work? Where should you look for internship and job opportunities? What are entry-level positions in museums and galleries like on a day-to-day basis? What does it mean to be an independent curator? What should you look out for as you search for jobs and evaluate opportunities? What are the benefits and challenges of this line of work? 

Join Yiran Chi (MAPH '22) and Leah Pires (MAPH/Art History faculty) for an informal conversation about working in the art world. We will discuss these questions and offer insights based on our experiences. There will be ample time for group discussion and you are welcome to bring your questions and ideas to the conversation. 

This event is especially for MAPH students and graduating Art History majors. Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to leahpires@uchicago.edu by April 25.

 

Meet in the CWAC lounge for refreshments

Weather permitting, we will gather outside CWAC. For MAPH students and senior Art History majors

Yiran Chi (they/she) currently works at the National Gallery of Art as the John Wilmerding Intern in American Art, contributing to Curatorial and Catalogue Raisonné projects related to Mark Rothko. During their nine-month internship, Yiran has been independently curating the rehang of the Rothko Tower Gallery, a long-term collection installation probing the interplay of space and bodies in Rothko’s paintings. Yiran graduated from the University of Chicago in June 2022 with an M.A. degree in the Humanities. Prior to that, they got their B.A. degree in Art History and Film and Media Studies from Northwestern University. Yiran researches on the history and theory of new media art, with a focus on examining moving images at the intersection of contemporary art and computational media through the lens of feminist and queer theories. Previously, Yiran has worked in curatorial and research positions at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, The Drawing Center, White Columns, and Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum.

Leah Pires (she/her) is an art historian and curator whose work focuses on the politics of representation in modern and contemporary art. Her book project Finessing the Frame looks at how artists envisioned structural change in the New York art world of the 1970s and 1980s. Alongside her scholarly research, she has curated several exhibitions of contemporary art, including Interior Garden (Museum Reinickendorf, Berlin), Finesse (Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York), and The Point Is To Exchange It (Shanaynay, Paris). She has authored catalogue essays on the work of B. Ingrid Olson, Lucy McKenzie, and Carissa Rodriguez, among others, and her criticism has been published in Triple Canopy4 Columns, and Art in America. Currently Assistant Instructional Professor and coordinator of the Curatorial Option in the University of Chicago’s MA Program in the Humanities and Department of Art History, she holds a PhD in Art History from Columbia University and is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program.