Dr Janna Graham

Janna Graham is a practice-based researcher who has worked in the field of the curatorial for nearly twenty years, occupying long term positions at institutions such as Whitechapel, Serpentine Galleries (London), the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham) and developing projects for Plymouth Arts Centre, Project Arts Centre (Dublin) Vanabbemusum (Netherlands), the New Museum (New York) and documenta (Kassel) among others. A key figure in what has been termed ‘the educational turn’ in curating, she has developed exhibitions, residencies, research and writing at the intersection of art and contemporary social urgencies including the struggles around migration, gentrification, education, anti-racism and indigeneity. From 2008-13 Graham was initiator and curator of the Centre For Possible Studies, an offsite curatorial programme of Serpentine Galleries that included artistic residencies and research projects in London’s Edgware Road neighbourhood; exhibitions at Serpentine Galleries (On The Edgware Road, 2011; Bidoun Library, 2012; Re-Assembly, 2013); and publications including ‘On the Edgware Road’, (2011) and ’Art + Care: A Future’(2013) and Studies on a Road, (2016).

Academic Qualifications

Phd, Goldsmiths Curatorial Knowledge (near completion)

MA Cultural Studies/Social History of Art, University of Leeds

BAH Geography, Queen’s University, Kingston Ontario Canada

Teaching

From 2014-16 Graham was Head of Public Programmes and Research at Nottingham Contemporary, guiding an innovative partnership between Nottingham Contemporary, University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University to support students through taught on modules and placement programmes at the undergraduate, MA and Phd level.

In 2013/14 she was external supervisor on the MA in Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York.

In 2012 she was co-Convenor of the MA in Aural and Visual Culture, Goldsmiths University with Mark Fisher and from 2006-8 she was a Visiting Tutor, Goldsmiths on the BA in Art History and Joint Honours Art History / Fine Art programmes.

In addition to work at the university level, she has developed programmes in secondary schools, involving students and teachers in the development of curricula and course work at the intersection of art, curatorial practice and critical theory.

Area of supervision

I am currently external supervisor of a practice-based Phd exploring the intersections of artistic practice, feminist research and radical adult education and am on the supervisory team of a project on histories of community arts in relation to contemporary curatorial practices.

I would welcome projects on the topics of Curating in the Expanded Field (public art, socially engaged art, dialogic art, the pedagogical turn in Art, feminist curatorial strategies); Art and Activism, Art and Community Organising; Community Art; Art, Pedagogy and Radical Research;Leaving Art; Art and Labour; Micropolitics and theoretical work on education theory or thinkers including Paulo Virno, Suely Rolnik, Brian Holmes, Felix Guattari.

Professional Projects

2009-present

Founding Member, Another Roadmap for Arts Education Network and School

2007 - present

Founding Member, Micropolitics Research Group

2010-present

Member, Radical Education Forum

2012

Advisor, Maybe Education Group, Documenta13

2012-13

Board Member, the Otolith Group

Recent Work

Writing

Graham, J. Graziano, V. & Kelly, S. (2016, in press). Art and education: Rewriting the hidden curriculum. Performance Research 21(6).            

Graham, J. (2016. in press) ‘Para-sites Like Us Part I, What is the Parasitic Tendency?’. Andamios Social Research Journal, 1(24) re-published from Six Degrees Online Residency and Publishing Platform. New York: New Museum. http://www.newmuseum.org/blog/view/para-sites-like-us-what-is-this-para-sitic-tendency

Graham, J. (2016, in press). Techniques for living otherwise: Curating, education and social reproduction in Creativity Exercises. Leipzig: StiftungGalerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst.              

Research

Co-Investigator, AHRC funded project Conflict Memory Displacement:

Responding to the refugee crisis in the UK and Italy http://conflictmemorydisplacement.com/author/cmdadmin/

Curating

Co-Curator, ‘A Work in Contradictions: The Open Brief and Incidental Person Revisited’ symposium on the contemporary relevance of the Artist Placement Group (Berlin, 2015) and researcher for ‘Context is Half the Work’ travelling exhibition on the work of the Artist Placement Group (Berlin/Edinburgh)

Speaking

Another Roadmap for Arts Education International Meeting, Sao Paulo Biennial October, 2016

Other interests

In the past I have engaged in a number of amateur cultural pursuits including singing and playing various instruments in the the now defunct band neo-liberalism study group Chicago Boys: While we were singing, they were dreaming and performing with Implicated Theatre.

Grants and Awards

2016 AHRC PACCS (Researcher)

2006 Commonwealth Scholarship (Doctoral Award)

1998 Rotary International Scholarship