CURATOR
Roya Amirsoleymani is an curator, writer, arts administrator, and Artistic Director & Curator of Public Engagement at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), where she co-curates visual art exhibitions, dance, theatre, performance art, sound, music, film/video, social practice, symposia, public programs, and community projects, working with international, national, and local artists across disciplines, both year-round and for the Time-Based Art Festival. She co-directs PICA’s Creative Exchange Lab artist residency and Precipice Fund, part of the Warhol Foundation’s’ Regional Regranting Program. Roya’s curatorial practice considers anti-racism, access, audienceship, participation, research, writing, and critical inquiry in relationship to contemporary art, experimental performance, and their social, political, and cultural contexts. She has taught at the MFA level; presented at conferences; written for publications; juried grants and awards; and served on steering and advisory committees. She also works on independent curatorial, advocacy, and writing projects. She holds a BA in Contemporary Visual Culture & Gender Studies (Johnston Center for Integrative Studies) and a Master’s in Arts Management (University of Oregon).
CURATOR
Jaleesa Johnston is an interdisciplinary artist, educator and arts administrator currently living and working in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a BA from Vassar College, an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MA from the University of Bergen in Norway. She has been the recipient of the AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Centrum’s Emerging Artist Residency, Open Signal’s New Media Fellowship and an Artist Trust Fellowship Award. Her artwork explores the Black female body as both subject and material through performance, video, photography, sculpture, collage and drawing. Jaleesa works as Head of Public Programs and Engagement in the Learning and Community Partnerships Department at the Portland Art Museum. Her curatorial interests and research include the residual imprint of ephemeral works in institutional spaces, with a focus on Black performance work.
CURATOR
Rana San is an intermedia artist, curator, and night dreamer pondering language and lineage, intimacy and interdependence. In community, she crafts collective experiences that champion the work of independent artists and activists, centering those whose voices have been historically underrepresented. Her curatorial and creative practice centers experimental and analog approaches to storytelling through film, writing, and movement presented on screen and stage. Rana co-directs Cadence Video Poetry Festival, an annual showcase of literary works presented as visual media, and is co-curating Good Symptom, a serial anthology of time-based disturbances launching in September 2023. She has recently presented work at SIFF (WA), Artists of Color Expo & Symposium (WA), Eugene Contemporary Art (OR), NYC Indie Theatre Film Festival (NY), and Experiments in Cinema (NM). Rana earned her BA from the University of Washington and holds a MA in Arts and Cultural Management from Universitat Internacional de Catalunya.
CURATOR
Emily Zimmerman is a curator, writer, and educator focused on artist residencies and commissions across the visual arts, media, and performance. In total, she has curated more than 50 exhibitions and commissions with artists such as Kerry Tribe, Clotilde Jiménez, Ariel René Jackson, and Marisa Williamson. She has also produced 300+ events, including lecture series, film series, performance festivals, and workshops. From 2017-2023 she was Director + Curator of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery at the University of Washington where she advocated for artists, used an expansive intersectional lens to advance racial and gender equity, and worked with students to become active participants in their local arts ecology. Prior to that she held curatorial positions at the Henry Art Gallery and the Experimental Media and Performing Art Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer. Zimmerman’s writing has appeared in BOMB and Contemporary Performance, and she has served on review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital, New York State Council on the Arts, Artist Trust, 4Culture, and the Herb Alpert Awards, among others. Emily earned her MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and her BA from New York University.
EXHIBITION MANAGER
Jeremy Buben is a curator and art collector based in Seattle. Currently Jeremy serves as Curator of Paintings at The Hideout, Cataloger at District Auctions, and is involved in various freelance visual arts projects around town including recent shows at Steve Gilbert’s Studio and AMcE Creative Arts. Jeremy is also the editor and publisher of The Art List, founder of the FoodArt Collection, and a member of Psychopomp Projects.