María del Carmen Carrión is an independent curator and art critic from Quito, who received an MA from the Curatorial Practice Program at California College of the Arts, in San Francisco, and taught at Universidad Católica in Quito. She is currently Associate Director of Public Programs & Research at Independent Curators International in New York. She co-founded Constructo /, an international collective platform devoted to research and debate of art and visual culture. Since 2009, she has been a member of the curatorial college of ceroinspiración, an exhibition and residency space in Quito. Recent projects include: The Life of Objetcs, VOGT Gallery, New York (2011), Materia Prima, 8va Bienal de Mercosur, Porto Alegre (2011), Otros Fueros, collaboration with Tercerunquinto, EACC, Castelló (2011), Historias Fugaces, LABoral, Gijón (2011), and The Nature of Things at the Biennial of the Americas, chief curator Paola Santoscoy, Denver (2010). Former positions include: Associate Curator at New Langton Arts in San Francisco, and Research Coordinator for Museo de la Ciudad in Quito.

Located in San José, Costa Rica, TEOR/éTica is a non-profit, independent, private project dedicated to the investigation and promotion of contemporary art practices from Central America and the Caribbean. TEOR/éTica’s endeavors can be grouped into four major categories: exhibition production, at both national and international levels; the promotion, documentation and support of regional artists; a strong editorial project (40 bilingual publications); and the organization of conferences and symposia. Throughout its existence, TEOR/éTica has created an international cultural network and has gained recognition for generating new ways of thought. Virginia Pérez-Ratton (1950–2010), a Costa Rican curator and investigator, founded the project in 1999.

www.teoretica.org/

The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) works to increase understanding and awareness of Latin America’s contributions to the history of art and ideas, and to support innovation, education, creativity, and research in the field of Latin American art. Through grants and partnerships, the CPPC also supports the professional development of Latin American artists, curators and scholars. Recent initiatives include, among others, a sponsorship to create a Curatorial Fellowship at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany; a partnership with Hunter College (New York) to create the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Professor of Latin American Art; and an alliance with the Bard Graduate Center (New York) to organize the Cisneros Seminar in the Material Cultures of the Ibero-American World.