2023 Curatorial Research Fellow: Ariana Faye Allensworth

Mar 21, 2023

Ariana Faye Allensworth’s research will examine geographies of Black sovereignty and world-building in California. The town of Allensworth, CA, a once Black utopia and the state’s first town founded, financed, and governed by Black Americans, will serve as the basis for her research. Stemming from Allensworth’s family connection to the town’s history, her project will draw from archival research and the work of contemporary artists whose practices engage with the Black geographic imagination and radical placemaking in the West. Culminating in a publication and public art installation, the project seeks to offer expansive and critical narratives of California – and American – landscapes.

Ariana Faye Allensworth (b. San Francisco, 1987) is an artist, researcher, and cultural strategist based in New York City. She blends her deep experience in social work, cultural organizing, community design, and participatory research to create opportunities for communities to build collective power and strategize for transformation. She currently works as a Design Director at the global design and innovation firm IDEO where she designs and leads pathways to a more inclusive and equitable organizational culture. She has previously led programs at The International Center of Photography, Youth Speaks, and The Center for Cultural Power that provided platforms for emerging and historically underrepresented artists to develop their creative practice and reach new audiences.

When not designing with and for the communities of IDEO, Allensworth is helping run the New York City chapter of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, a research and digital media collective that is documenting displacement and crafting tools for resistance in solidarity with gentrifying communities. She has participated in residencies and fellowships with ProArts Gallery, The Laundromat Project, Project Inkblot, Pioneer Works, and NEW INC. Her work as an independent curator and researcher builds upon interests in Black visual and spatial histories, as well as the connections between cultural production and radical social change.

This Curatorial Research Fellowship is made possible by the Marian Goodman Gallery Initiative in honor of the late Okwui Enwezor. Additional support is provided by ICI's Board of Trustees and Leadership Council.