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.
Kati Ilves

Kati Ilves (1984, Estonia) works as a curator in the Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia. Kumu is the largest of the five branches of the Art Museum of Estonia, displaying both permanent and temporary exhibitions. In Kumu, Ilves is in charge of the contemporary art gallery, and focuses on curating the current tendencies in Estonian and international art, as well as introducing the classics of modern and contemporary art to the public. She has curated solo exhibitions and group shows, and put together research-based projects, such as an exhibition focusing on the development of the sound art discipline. Ilves has also edited several catalogues and books accompanying exhibitions and has made a documentary film about the artist Raoul Kurvitz, a central figure in the Estonian art scene at the beginning of the 1990s. She is the initiator of the Kumu Art Film Festival KuFF: the first cultural event in Estonia of its kind, which highlights works by visual artists, focusing on the relationship between film and art. Since 2009, she has been a lecturer in the Department of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She is also a board member of the magazine Estonian Art and a regular writer for several papers.
Her current fields of interest include the history of contemporary art curating and working with the archives of past exhibitions. Ilves graduated from the Department of Art History at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and studied literature and film in Paris 8 University.
involved in:
2015 Fall Curatorial Intensive Symposium
Participants of the Fall Curatorial Intensive will present their exhibition and project proposals, which they have been developing for the program.
read more »Curatorial Intensive in New York
This September, ICI produces the Curatorial Intensive in New York, offering curators the opportunity to discuss the concepts, logistics, and challenges of organizing exhibitions, public programs, and other curatorial models.
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