Asha, character sketch by artist Angela Azmita, 2019
2017 / artist Nuria Montiel, install for We're Always on Time, co-curator, exhibition for Sullivan Galleries, Chicago
2004 / Vaginas Vote, Chicks Rock performances and rally at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, voting campaign coordinator for V-Day global movement to end violence against women and girls
2015 / The Places We've Been: Field Reports from Travelers Under 35, interviewer, editor, and publisher
2019 / Asha with artist Grace Tenneh Kromah, Artist Self-Promotion course at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, faculty in Arts Administration & Policy
2019 / Workgroup 1 - artist interventions, public support, and launch strategy, Artist Self-Promotion course at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, faculty in Arts Administration & Policy
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Bio I In 2019 Asha Iman Veal was curator for The Tokyo Show: Black & Brown Are Beautiful and Preview 9: A Boldness to Dare and Try. She is Faculty in curatorial practice and Arts Administration & Policy at School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her former roles at arts and advocacy organizations include the Exhibitions and Residency team at Hyde Park Art Center, and playwright Eve Ensler’s V-Day global movement to end violence against women and girls. Asha Iman’s literary/text-based projects include The Places We’ve Been (2013) and Brooklyn (the black) (2015); presented in the U.S. and U.K, and acquired by special collections libraries such as the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. In 2019/2018 she juried for Arts + Public Life/Center for the Study of Race, Politics, & Culture, at The University of Chicago; Ox-Bow; and ACRE. She has worked on research and arts-based projects in Vietnam, Tokyo, Scotland, Canada, and Cuba, (et al). Asha Iman serves on the Membership Committee at Experimental Sound Studio; and the BMW Foundation’s Transatlantic Core Group (Germany/U.S.), Responsible Leaders Network (Global Table), and Equitable and Inclusive Economies Workgroup (partnership with BLabs, Canada/U.S.). The linked curriculum vitae details her key accomplishments and full professional history. Statement I As a teacher and arts professor, I am obsessed with curatorial theory. I've wanted to expand and know: How can curatorial practice be a strategy of advocating for artistic pedagogies of leadership? What are the ways that curatorial practice functions as a social and political engagement? How does curatorial practice create moments of possibility, and engage the public? As well as, how does curatorial practice reposition, through "the constellation?" Statement II
I am also a creative writer, and completed an MFA in creative nonfiction. I studied contemporary literary and narrative practices formally for many years, seeking textual yet creative examples that deepen the understanding of contemporary multiculturalism. Most often my own work is memoir and/or character-driven fiction, and is very attached to place. I love collaborative, independent publication projects and am nearly always excited to work on something new. MORE INFORMATION: Here's a full narrative of my career history, The Illustrated Story of How I Cut My Teeth, OR a direct jump to the most recent years of my work dedicated to visual contemporary. My faculty page at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago http://www.saic.edu/profiles/faculty/asha-iman-veal My short c.v. that is peppered with many "hot links" Also, The Places We've Been, is the first really big independent arts project that I helmed myself and launched. What else? I was born and raised in Northern California, and trained there, in New York, and in Chicago. It is my strongest belief—and experience—that the power of an arts education is fierce across settings, as a skillset and dynamic perspective for leadership. I've spent the past 15+ years exploring the arts overall as a field of public discourse capable to reimagine and propose new frameworks. Engaging a multidisciplinary community of peers within the arts, and peers outside of the field, is also what I passionately do. |