(Boston, MA—February 6, 2019) The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) announced today the appointment of Anni Pullagura as Curatorial Assistant and Juan Omar Rodriguez as Curatorial Fellow. Anni will work on an array of upcoming exhibitions and publications, including the forthcoming survey exhibition of Deana Lawson and its accompanying publication. She will also serve a key role in the management of the ICA’s permanent collection. Juan Omar is working closely with ICA curators on the upcoming exhibition Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech,” in addition to supporting the curators in long-range research projects. Curatorial Fellowships are made possible, in part, through the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative, funded by the Walton Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
Anni Pullagura
Since coming to the ICA in 2018 as a Curatorial Fellow, Anni Pullagura has supported catalogue production and exhibition planning for When Home Won’t Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art (2019-20), William Forsythe: Choreographic Objects (2018-19), and Huma Bhabha: They Live (2019). An alumna of the Center for Curatorial Leadership/Mellon Foundation Seminar in Curatorial Practice, she has held numerous positions in cultural institutions throughout the United States, including the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, the High Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in American Studies and an MA candidate in the History of Art and Architecture at Brown University, where she also received her MA in Public Humanities in 2016. As a 2019–20 Tyson Scholar of American Art at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, her dissertation “Seeing Feeling: The Work of Empathy in Exhibitionary Spaces” traces a critical history of contemporary Black and Indigenous installation art since 1989.
Juan Omar Rodriguez
Juan Omar Rodriguez received his MA in Art History and Museum Studies from Tufts University and his BA in Neuroscience from Oberlin College. He recently co-curated the exhibition SMFA at Tufts: Juried Student Exhibition 2019–2020 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He has previously conducted research and designed public programs for Frida Kahlo and Arte Popular (2019) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and A Decolonial Atlas: Strategies in Contemporary Art of the Americas (2018) at the Tufts University Art Galleries.
Since its founding in 1936, the ICA has shared the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, imagination, and provocation that contemporary art offers with its audiences. A museum at the intersection of contemporary art and civic life, the ICA has advanced a bold vision for amplifying the artist’s voice and augmenting art’s role as educator, incubator, and convener for social engagement. Its innovative exhibitions, performances, and educational programs provide access to contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas. Spanning two locations across Boston Harbor, the ICA offers year-round programming at its iconic building in Boston’s Seaport and seasonal programming (May-September) at the Watershed in an East Boston shipyard.
The ICA is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, MA, 02210. The Watershed is located at 256 Marginal Street, East Boston, MA 02128. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our website at icaboston.org. Follow the ICA at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Acknowledgments
Curatorial Fellowships are made possible, in part, through the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative, funded by the Walton Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
Images
Anni Pullagura: Molly O’Donnell
Juan Omar Rodriguez: Liza Voll Photography