Our two-day public conference, Mending Wall, took its name from the 1914 Robert Frost poem to ask, in two panel discussions and a keynote lecture, what it means to be a “good neighbor” within and beyond the art institution, in the contexts of our personal relationships, and at national and global scales. “Think Global” took an international perspective with panelists Oyindamola Faithful and Marina Reyes Franco moderated by Megha Ralapati. They considered what role our art institutions can play in larger political dynamics: what constitutes “cultural diplomacy” at a nation-state level and how do we define who our neighbors are beyond geographical proximity? In the second panel, “Act Local,” Katie Pfohl and Daniel Tucker brought the focus to the community level with moderator Ross Stanton Jordan. The panelists placed the topic of neighborliness in the context of history and personal practice, and explored how museums and other cultural spaces can collaborate with the communities they inhabit and serve. Finally, in her keynote lecture “A Sense of Common Cause,” independent curator and researcher Eszter Szakács discussed five of her projects that “bring old collaborations into new constellations” and engage with grassroots art organizing outside state infrastructures, including the 41st EVA International (2025) – Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art.
Mending Wall also included a breakfast celebrating the book launch of Curating Engagement, co-published by Public Trust and Wagner Foundation and now available to download or purchase on Public Trust’s website. Edited by Daniel Tucker, Aaron Levy, and Abigail Satinsky, the book features the voices of over 50 curators, educators, and artists working at the intersection of public engagement and curatorial practice (including many ICI collaborators!). During the breakfast, several of the book’s contributors and Forum participants shared one “keyword” that speaks to the role of engagement in their personal curatorial practice.
In addition to the public conference, 64 curators were invited to participate in EXPO CHICAGO and come together for dialogue and knowledge-sharing. Curatorial Forum activities included an opening reception at the Driehaus Museum presented in partnership with Trellis Art Fund, and participant tours of EXPO CHICAGO led by the four Guides of our Chicago Assembly: Mariela Acuña, Iris Colburn, S.Y. Lim, and Alivé Piliado. We also conducted a site visit to The Land School—the latest space-based project of the nonprofit Rebuild Foundation led by artist Theaster Gates—which is dedicated to a radical model of land stewardship rooted in artistic excellence, creative experimentation, and archival practice. The visit started with a breakfast and reflection conversation where participants discussed some of the many points generated during the conference: ideas of spirituality in artistic and curatorial practice, and how curators and institutional stewards can make room for people’s full humanity in the spaces we shape. Then, we toured The Land School with Director Afton Battle and joined the community for their public Listening Hours: deep listening sessions that activate records from across Rebuild's sound-based archives.
