To Look Back and Wonder

June 23, 2021
Zoom hosted by The Minnesota Museum of American Art
6:00–7:30 pm

As museums around the world contemplate their continued relevance, curators Sally Frater and Dr. Kelli Morgan take a look back over their careers to-date as museum professionals who have worked to make institutions more equitable. In this conversation, the two seasoned curators will discuss how they would advise their younger selves on navigating the often toxic environments of art museums.

Sally Frater holds an Honours BA in Studio Art from the University of Guelph and an MA in Contemporary Art from The University of Manchester/Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Curatorially she is interested in decolonization, space and place, Black and Caribbean diasporas, photography, art of the everyday, and issues of equity and representation in museological spaces. She has curated solo and group exhibitions for institutions such as the Art Gallery of Guelph, the Ulrich Museum of Art, the McColl Center for Art and Innovation, Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at the University of Toronto, Project Row Houses, and Centre[3] for Artistic and Social Practice. A former resident in the Core Critical Studies fellowship at the Glassell School at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Frater has also completed fellowships and residencies at the UT Dallas Centraltrak, Southern Methodist University, Project Row Houses and Art21. The recipient of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts she is a member of the Association of Art Museum Curators and is an alumna of Independent Curators International. She is currently the executive director of Oakville Galleries.

Dr. Kelli Morgan is a curator, educator, and social justice activist who specializes in American art and visual culture. Her scholarly commitment to the investigation of anti-blackness within those fields has demonstrated how traditional art history and museum practice work specifically to uphold white supremacy. Dr. Morgan has held teaching positions at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University, Wayne State University, and the University of Michigan, as well as curatorial positions at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 2014, the Ford Foundation awarded her a dissertation fellowship. She earned her PhD in Afro-American studies and a graduate certificate in public history–museum studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Watch the recording on Vimeo: vimeo.com/567201995