Campus Gallery, Museum and Public Art Curators and Directors

Recognizing the unique opportunities and challenges of the deans who oversee campus art galleries, museums and public art programs, ICfAD has created an affinity group or thought community for curators and directors of university galleries and museums who are public facing organizations responsible for research and fulfilling educational missions through artistic exhibitions, outreach programs and publications. Through the academic year, members will share best practices and be provided with numerous opportunities for professional development.

Art enriches our university and community college campuses, and enhances the meeting places for our communities. As stated so eloquently in a recent issue of The Atlantic, “public or private, rural or urban, college museums are tackling ambitious projects like never before, promoting academic curators . . . to be lead actors on the cultural stage.”

We invite you to enjoy the benefits of ‘bundled’ membership: $1,600 annual dues includes an academic unit’s Dean plus four additional representatives of your choice. We think you’ll agree that the new ‘bundled approach offers benefits including less expense than the ‘a la carte’ structure that has been in place previously; a single invoice annually; broader participation throughout the year; and more diverse constituencies. Join us anytime during the year! Your membership year is based on the date you join or renew, for 12 months. To join or renew with a ‘bundled’ membership structure, please see the form on this webpage.

Or, click here to become a member of this thought community if your academic until chooses to use ICFAD’s ‘a la carte’ membership structure. Either way, your gallery and museum director and curator is invited to participate in this thought community.

Upcoming Opportunities

Online discussions are on the third Thursdays of January, February, March and April at 4:00 Eastern / 3:00 Central / 2:00 Mountain / 1:00 Pacific. Online discussions and programs are 60 minutes.

Group Leadership: Stefanie Dlugosz-Acton, Director, CVAD Galleries, College of Visual Arts and Design, University of North Texas, [email protected]

Invitations for each meeting will be sent. Registration is free for members of each affinity group or $80 per session for non-members. Join this affinity group now.

  • January 16 - An Open Forum with discussion prompts including topics members share in advance. We’ll share them with you early in the new year.
  • February 20 – One-Staff Wonders. Efficiencies that Have Led to Success. How We Are Stronger Together. A Consultant who Specializes in Training for Efficiencies?
  • March 20 – What do Collections Mean to Pedagogy and the Landscape for the Future? Decolonizing Collection Practices.
  • April 17 - How do we Challenge the Perception that Campus Galleries and Museums are Just for Students?

All topics and presenters are subject to change. Please watch future emails and these webpages for updates.

Gallery and Museum Directors Online Meetings (Including linked recordings)

Our April, 2024 meeting, Where Do Academic Galleries and Museums Belong? Serving both On-Campus and Community Audiences: An Open Forum for Members to Share the Pros and Cons of various Reporting Structures was facilitated by Lydia Gravis, Director of Art Exhibitions & Public Programs, and Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Department of Visual Art and Design, Weber State University.

Our January, 2024 meeting, The University and College Art Galleries Association of Canada . . . and . . . The Challenges that Come with Feeling Well Supported, Yet Sometimes an Anomaly, discussed a dynamic network of university and college art galleries across Canada, the members of University and College Art Galleries Association of Canada work collectively and collaboratively to strengthen and promote the study and appreciation of the visual arts through their collections, exhibitions, and research, within the academic community and beyond. During our online program, we will learn more about how they do what they do. Also during this online program: The Challenges that Come with Feeling Well Supported, Yet Sometimes Restrained. This discussion was facilitated by Jenifer Papararo, Director/Curator at the Art Gallery of York University, where she is overseeing the building of a new multi-site art gallery. 

Our first meeting in May 2023, A Conversation with Marisa Sage about Contemporary Issues in Curatorial Practice in University-Based Galleries and Museums, facilitated by Marisa Sage, the Director and Head Curator of the New Mexico State University Art Museum in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Sage is a curator with a passion for emerging contemporary art and artists. Throughout her 15+-year career, Sage has planned and executed more than 100 international exhibitions, which included more than 200 individual artists globally. Previously, Sage served as the Director of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation in New York, and Galleries Manager for Salisbury University Art Galleries in Salisbury, Maryland. Before that, she established Like the Spice Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn which held over 65 exhibitions between 2006 and 2012. At NMSU, Sage has written and received multiple grants including the National Endowment for the Arts, Artwork Grants to support the Fall 2022 exhibition Contemporary Ex-votos: Devotion Beyond Medium, the Mellon Foundation's Art Museum Futures Fund and most recently the Thoma Foundation Grant. Sage is a New York native, who received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography from Syracuse University and Master of Digital Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art.