Bell Gallery At Brown University Appoints Kate Kraczon Curator

The David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University announced the appointment of Kate Kraczon as curator. Kraczon, who assumed her new post August 1, most recently held the position of Laporte Associate Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), University of Pennsylvania, where she organized over thirty exhibitions. In her role as curator, she will be responsible for the conceptualization and implementation of the Bell Gallery's exhibition and educational programs and managing the care and growth of Brown's permanent collection.

This year, the Bell Gallery officially joined the Brown Arts Initiative (BAI), a consortium of six arts departments, the Bell Gallery and Rites and Reason Theatre at Brown comprising the performing, literary and visual arts. Anne Bergeron, BAI managing director, said, "While we have been collaborating with the Bell since the BAI's launch in 2017, this formal partnership allows us to deepen the student experience at Brown and our engagement with the Providence community. We look forward to continue working with our Bell Gallery colleagues as we explore new ways to examine contemporary culture through the arts."

Jo-Ann Conklin, director of the Bell Gallery, said, "We are delighted to welcome Kate to Brown. Her experience in a university gallery of ICA's caliber will inform her work organizing exhibitions and developing programming that explore complex issues. Her deep knowledge of contemporary art and curatorial expertise will enrich our offerings as we officially join the BAI to present leading-edge contemporary art in Brown's cross-disciplinary ecosystem."

Since joining the ICA in 2008, Kraczon championed emerging artists, notably curating Alex Da Corte and Jayson Musson: Easternsports (2014) and Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme: The Incidental Insurgents (2015), as well as solo exhibitions by artists such as Karla Black, Suki Seokyeong Kang, and Becky Suss. Her most recent exhibition, Ree Morton: The Plant That Heals May Also Poison, is a reassessment of an innovative artist whose poetic approach to language and symbolism progressively distanced her work from easy categorization. The exhibition spans a single decade of artistic production before Morton's untimely death in 1977 at the age of 41. It was awarded a commendation by the inaugural Sotheby's Prize for an "exhibition that breaks new ground" and was featured in Artforum's "Best of 2018" issue. The exhibition will be presented at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in fall 2019 and travel to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2020.

Before her eleven-year tenure at the ICA, Kraczon served as curatorial administrative assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago from 2005 to 2008. She received her B.A. from Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, and M.L.A. from University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Image: Kate Kraczon is standing before Ree Morton's The Plant That Heals May Also Poison, 1974. Five lightbulbs, enamel and glitter on wood and celastic. 46 x 64 inches. FWA - Lieve Van Gorp Foundation for Women Artists. © Estate of Ree Morton. Photo: Constance Mensh.