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.
Rachel Reese

Rachel Jobe Reese is Director and Curator of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), the first ICA in the state of TN. From 2015-2019, Reese served as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Telfair Museums in Savannah, GA where she organized over 20 special exhibitions, including the recent retrospective and accompanying catalogue for Suzanne Jackson: Five Decades (Telfair Books, 2019). Reese held prior positions at Atlanta Contemporary in Atlanta where she curated Pratfall Tramps (Atlanta Contemporary, 2015) with accompanying catalogue; Fleisher/Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia; and Deitch Projects, Petzel Gallery and Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York. Reese is an alumni of Independent Curators International; was a former editor of Burnaway magazine in Atlanta, and her writing and artist interviews have appeared in BOMB Daily, Temporary Art Review, TWELV Magazine, and Art Papers; she also published a free newsprint of artists’ writings called Possible Press from 2010–15. Reese has taught at PAFA in Philadelphia and Georgia State University in Atlanta, and currently teaches at UTC in the Department of Art. Reese holds an MFA from City College, CUNY, in New York.
involved in:
Notes for Tomorrow
Notes for Tomorrow is a new exhibition conceived by ICI, featuring artworks selected by alumni of the Curatorial Intensive from around the world to reflect on a new global reality ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic.
read more »Radical Plastic: Artist Conversation
In conjunction with the exhibition Radical Plastic, on view at CUE Art Foundation (July 16-August 20, 2016), curator Rachel Reese speaks with artists Carson Fisk-Vittori and Ria Roberts.
read more »Pratfall Tramps
Pratfall Tramps—featuring Tammy Rae Carland, Jamie Isenstein, Sara Greenberger Rafferty and Mary Reid Kelley—investigates an artwork’s comedic desire.
read more »2014 Spring Curatorial Intensive Symposium
Join ICI and the Spring 2014 Curatorial Intensive on Tuesday, March 25 for a daylong public symposium where the participants will present the exhibition and project proposals that they have developed through the program.
read more »Considering Publics and Contexts
This March, Independent Curators International (ICI) produces the Curatorial Intensive: Considering Publics and Contexts, a ten-day professional development program that offers curators the opportunity to discuss, among colleagues, the concepts, logistics, and challenges of organizing exhibitions.
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