COURTESY THE INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, announced today that Stephanie Smith will be its chief curator. Smith will leave her position at the Art Gallery of Ontario, where she is currently chief curator, to join the museum this November in anticipation of its opening in fall 2017.
In her new position, Smith will join the ICA’s current director, Lisa Freiman, and curator of education, Johanna Plummer, in developing the museum’s artistic vision. Together this team will oversee the programming for the ICA’s new 41,000-square-foot building, designed by Steven Holl Architects.
Freiman, commenting on Smith’s appointment in a press statement, said that “with her extensive leadership experience in university and contemporary art museums, [Smith] is the ideal addition to the ICA, and will greatly help the institution inspire new ways of thinking, encourage discourse, and foster collaboration.”
Smith herself described the appointment as a “once in a lifetime experience” that she would take to help create “a dynamic curatorial program that engages the pressing issues of our times through great art and ideas.”