Chicago Curatorial Seminar 2026

Sep 12, 2026 – Dec 19, 2026

Chicago, IL, USA

In this program, eight Chicago-based emerging curators will meet over eight sessions from September to December 2026 for discussion-based seminars and site visits led by ICI staff, guest curators, artists, and arts professionals. Each participant will also workshop a proposal for a project and receive individual advisement from selected mentors, who provide a unique perspective on the participant's curatorial practice. This Seminar's site visits include Hyde Park Art Center, Patient Info, Wrightwood 659, and the National Museum of Mexican Art.

Participants

abreihona

abreihona (b. 1998) is a Chicago-based arts administrator, art historian, arts educator, and independent curator whose work engages Black ontologies in popular and visual culture.

Dorrah Alharbi

Dorrah Alharbi is a historian, curator, and artist based in Chicago, IL.

Vidushi Lohia

Vidushi Lohia is a South Asian, Chicago-based artist, curator, and arts administrator whose practice explores memory, cultural inheritance, and embodied knowledge through material and exhibition-making.

Caira Moreira

Caira Moreira is a curator, researcher, and art historian whose work investigates themes of postcolonialism, migration, identity, and visual culture, focusing specifically on contemporary African and Caribbean diasporic art.

Seth Nguyen

Seth Nguyen is a Hanoi-born curator and archivist currently based in the U.S. His practice and his thinking are rooted in the interstitial, uncanny, and itinerant.

Carissa Lee Pinckney

Carissa Lee Pinckney is a multidisciplinary artist, performer, curator and producer based in Chicago whose work spans performance, sound, poetry, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Latil Willis

Latil Willis is a Chicago-based cultural researcher, artist, and community practitioner interested in what we inherit beyond what can be named.

Rashieda Witter

Rashieda Witter is a Chicago-based art historian, curator, and cultural caretaker whose practice centers the visual and sonic cultures of Africa and the diaspora, Black feminism, and archives.

About the Curatorial Seminar

ICI's Curatorial Seminar is a free professional development program that supports emerging curators to advance their practice. It centers a first-person approach to curating, and focuses on strengthening curatorial practices that support overlooked artists and engage with local art communities while working outside of a large institution. This unique program offers opportunities to gain knowledge and resources through ICI’s network, share ideas, and think through developments in one's own curatorial practice. Through this process, the Seminar seeks to build an affirming network of peers who connect around common values, and support the sharing of knowledge among early-career curators.

The Chicago Curatorial Seminar is made possible by The Joyce Foundation and Teiger Foundation, with additional support from the ICI Board of Trustees.

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