Independent Curators International (ICI) supports the work of curators to help create stronger art communities through experimentation, collaboration, and international engagement. Curators are arts community leaders and organizers who champion artistic practice; build essential infrastructures and institutions; and generate public engagement with art. Our collaborative programs connect curators across generations, and across social, political and cultural borders. They form an international framework for sharing knowledge and resources — promoting cultural exchange, access to art, and public awareness for the curator’s role.
Jay Pather

Jay Pather is a choreographer, curator and academic. Based in Cape Town, he is an Associate Professor and directs the Institute for Creative Arts at UCT, curates Infecting the City Public Art Festival and the ICA Live Art Festival. He also curates for Afrovibes in the Netherlands and for the Bienalle of Body, Image Movement in Madrid is curatorial adviser for Live Art for Season Africa 2020 in various cities in France. He has co-curated for Spielart in Munich and has been Adjunct Curator for Performance at the Zeitz MOCAA. Recent addresses include for Festival of the Future City (UK), Independent Curators International (New York) and at the Haus der Kunst (Munich). He has recently published a book, Transgressions, Live Art in South Africa with Catherine Boulle, Recent articles appear in Changing Metropolis ll, Rogue Urbanism, Performing Cities and Where Strangers Meet. He chaired the jury for the recent International Award for Public Art, was appointed Fellow at the University of London and was recently made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of Arts and Letters) by the French Government.
involved in:
Curatorial Intensive in Cape Town 2019
This November, ICI will organize the Curatorial Intensive in Cape Town, South Africa in collaboration with the Institute for Creative Arts at the University of Cape Town. The program will coincide with Infecting the City, the longest running public arts festival in the country, curated by Jay Pather.
read more »Curator’s Perspective: Jay Pather
As part of ICI’s Curator’s Perspective—an itinerant public discussion series featuring national and international curators—Jay Pather, Director of the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA), will speak about curating performance and live art in public space.
read more »Curatorial Intensive in Accra
This April, ICI organizes the inaugural Curatorial Intensive in Accra, Ghana, in collaboration with Foundation for Contemporary Art–Ghana (FCA).
read more »Curatorial Intensive in New Orleans
ICI returns to New Orleans this March for the second Curatorial Intensive with the CAC New Orleans and Prospect New Orleans.
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