With Post-Congress in Havana, Cuba
April 11–18, 2019
The annual Congress for IKT, the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art, will be held in Miami April 11-14, 2019, marking the first occasion in its 45-year history that the event will be hosted in the United States. A Post-Congress will take place in Havana, Cuba April 15-18.
IKT Miami will highlight the diversity and vitality of the contemporary art scene in Miami—focusing on resiliency and sustainability through the lens of cultural production in South Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
Organized by Ombretta Agró Andruff, a Miami Beach-based curator and IKT Board Member, and a team of eleven other Miami-based curators, the four-day event will kick-off with an opening reception at The Wolfsonian-FIU on Thursday, April 11. The subsequent three days will involve visits to seventeen other Miami-Dade arts institutions and nineteen individual events, of which six will be open to the public to widen the cultural experience for IKT delegates from around the world.
The symposium “ARTiculating Sustainability: Resilience in the Climate Crisis?” is the main public event of the Congress. On Sunday, April 14, at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the symposium will bring together diverse artists, curators, and writers to consider the role that art and visual culture can play in changing public perception of the pressing climate change issues. “Our aim with ARTiculating Sustainability is to explore how artists address issues of environmental resiliency and sustainability. The future of the world’s eco-system is THE issue of our time. Art can play a significant role in effecting change and sparking activism,” remarks Susan Caraballo, symposium organizer.
Featured speakers are T.J. Demos, Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Visual Cultre, and Founder and Director of the Center for Creative Ecologies, University of California, Santa Cruz; Xavier Cortada, whose artistic practice is oriented toward social engagement and the environment, and who often collaborates with scientists; Lydia Platón Lazaro, independent scholar and cultural producer based in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Allison Schifani, Assistant Professor in Digital Humanities at the University of Miami; Meryl Shriver-Rice, Director of the University of Miami’s Master’s program in Environment, Culture, & Media; and Stephanie Wakefield, an urban geographer and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Florida International University’s Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies. Artists Misael Soto, Felice Grodin, and Cara Despain, whose work addresses these issues, will share their practice in 5-minute presentations. Ambient art experiences will expand on the subject of the symposium at this event and in different IKT Congress venues.
Public participation opportunities include two live podcast events, local artist presentations, a closing reception and a sound art experience. At the Wolfsonian-FIU on April 11 and the Riviera Hotel on April 12, Cathy Byrd, founder and artistic director of Fresh Art International, will engage in conversations with IKT delegates and local art professionals. 5-Minute Rounds Artist Presentations at the Rubell Family Collection (Saturday, April 13) will introduce Carlos Betancourt, Asif Farooq, Fabian Peña, Christina Pettersson, Troy Simmons, Juana Valdes, Agustina Woodgate, Antonia Wright, Deborah Mitchell/Artists in Residence in Everglades (AIRIE), and Andrea Orane/Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI). Oolite Arts will host the closing reception that features open studios with resident artists (Sunday, April 14). The final public event will take place outdoors, at the New World Center: the SoundScape screening of Bill Fontana’s sound and video installation Sonic Dreamscapes, commissioned by the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places (Sunday, April 14).
From April 15-18, IKT delegates will participate in a Post-Congress in Havana. The IKT Miami Committee has worked closely with Havana-based art professionals to organize the program to include visits to artist studios, institutions such as the Casa de las Americas, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, and Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam as well as the 13th Havana Biennial, which takes place April 12-May 12, 2019.
The IKT Miami Congress is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami Beach Visitor & Convention Authority, Greater Miami Visitors & Convention Bureau, Miami Downtown Development Authority, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Institute of Contemporary Art Miami and Oolite Arts, with additional support from the Art in Public Places Trust, Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and Cultural Affairs Council, Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
Media partners: Cultured Magazine and Fresh Art International.
About IKT
IKT is the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art, a network that brings together curators from across the world, to meet, share knowledge, exchange and broaden their professional relationships. Founded in 1973, IKT’s early members included prominent curators such as Eberhard Roters, Eddy de Wilde and Harald Szeemann. The organization’s mission is to stimulate and extend debate concerning curating and also to offer opportunities to find partners for the co-production of exhibitions, publications, events, and special initiatives. IKT represents the professional interests of over 700 curators and artistic directors of non-profit exhibition spaces and museums as well as freelance curators from Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. By holding its 2019 annual Congress in Miami, IKT hopes to expand its network across the United States, as well as to Central America, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
More information online.
Press Contacts
Susan Grant Lewin Associates
T 212.947.4557
Dan Schwartz dan [at] susangrantlewin.com
Kate Robertson kate [at] susangrantlewin.com
