The Art Fund charity in the UK is launching an ambitious new curatorial fellowship programme as a “response to the lack of representation in curatorial leadership”. Empowering Curators will support 20 curators from Global Majority backgrounds through multi-year fellowships at UK museums and galleries (Global Majority is a collective term that refers to individuals who are Black, Asian, Brown, mixed heritage and Indigenous to the Global South).
The curatorial fellows will design and deliver exhibitions and programming and engage with local communities, says an Art Fund statement. The host organisations will also launch programmes aimed at advancing equity, diversion and inclusion.
The first ten fellows include Christo Kefalas at the Whitworth, who will explore “transcultural perspectives” in the next collection re-hang at the Manchester institution.
Carine Harmand is curating exhibitions and displays to be shown at Tate Liverpool once it reopens in 2027, including a new multidisciplinary installation by the artist Julianknxx, co-commissioned with Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum. Another fellow, Jill Sutherland is developing interpretive approaches at the International Slavery Museum, as part of its redevelopment.
Nusrat Ahmed, meanwhile, will lead work to “embed anti-racism and social justice across Manchester Museum’s practice”, according to a release.
The project follows the publication of an Art Fund report in 2022 (It’s About Handing Over Power) which stated that “much more focused and sustained work needs to be done to diversify the UK curatorial workforce”. The report’s recommendations included addressing “structural and institutional racism in funding criteria to ensure a more equitable allocation of funding”.
Last year another key report published by the cultural and creative industries membership body Creative UK (Leadership diversity in the creative and cultural industries) found that there are “significant gaps in leadership diversity across the creative and cultural sectors”.
The steering group overseeing Empowering Curators includes Gus Casely-Hayford, director of V&A East, and Noorah Al-Gailani, curator of Islamic collections (Arab World) at the British Museum. Project funders include the Headley Trust, Arts Council England and the Hollick Family Foundation.
