BIO
Adia Sykes is a Chicago-based independent curator and arts administrator. Her current research examines the potential of curating as an advocacy tool for racial equity in the arts. Through her practice, she seeks to center philosophies of improvisation and intuition, engaging them as tools by which meaningful relationships between artists and viewers can be cultivated, while leaving space for the vernacular to mingle with constructs of history and theory. Her curatorial projects include Locating Memory (Chicago Mayor’s Office, 2018), Project Radio London (Centro Arte Opificio Siri in Terni, Italy, 2018), and The Petty Biennial.2 (Chicago, 2019-2020). She has also realized projects with the Art Institute of Chicago, Sullivan Galleries, Woman Made Gallery, Material Exhibitions, Roman Susan Gallery, and Comfort Station.
Adia earned a Masters of Arts from the Department of Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2018) and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Chicago (2016) with a focus on material culture and museums.
CV
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2019-2020 | The Petty Biennial.2, Glass Curtain Gallery, Heaven Gallery, NYCH Gallery (Chicago)
2019 | Disrupting Domestic, ACRE Projects (Chicago)
2019 | Reclamation: of time, of agency, of narrative, ACRE Projects (Chicago)
2019 | Material Sounding: The Dimensionality of a Thread, Material Exhibitions (Chicago)
2018 | Unstable, Comfort Station (Chicago)
2018 | Project Radio London, 2018 Terni Festival (Terni, Italy)
2018 | A Landscape Made Up, ACRE Projects (Chicago)
2018 |Structures Manifest, ACRE Projects (Chicago)
2018 | Locating Memory, Mayor’s Office at Chicago City Hall
2018 | The Space We Grow Into, Woman Made Gallery (Chicago)
2018 | School of the Art Institute 2018 MFA Exhibition, The Sullivan Galleries (Chicago)
2017 | School of the Art Institute 2017 Fall BFA Show, The Sullivan Galleries (Chicago)
2017 | Shifting the Center, Sullivan Galleries (Chicago)
2017 | School of the Art Institute 2017 Low-Residency MFA Thesis Show, Sullivan Galleries (Chicago)
2017 | Iterative Information, Origin Ongoing, Dean’s Office at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
PROGRAMMING
Root & Rise
May 4, 2019
Program Organizer
Doing the Work: Re-contextualizing Sustainability, and Inclusion
A conversation between Angelique Power and Tracie D. Hall, moderated by Kamilah Rashied
April 9, 2018
Program Organizer
South of Pico: Kellie Jones in Conversation with Romi Crawford
September 7, 2017
Program Organizer
Bisi Silva: The Many Roles of a Global Curator
April 1, 2017
Program Organizer
RESIDENCIES
Institute for Curatorial Practice and Research/Centro Arti Opificio Siri
(Terni, Italy)
August 23-September 25, 2018
Inaugural Post-Graduate Fellow
ACRE Residency Program
November 2017-November 2019
Curatorial Resident
PUBLICATIONS
Emerge: Graduate Journal of Arts Administration and Policy
Programming Coordinator (December 2017-May 2018)
Managing Editor (January 2017-December 2017)
CONFERENCES & JURIES
Lighthouse Works
April 2020
Juror: Artist Residency Program
Illinois Arts Council Agency
June 2019
Juror: Visual Arts Programs
Balut Artist Salon with Ayako Kato and Andy Slater
April 2019
Moderator
Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (City of Chicago)
February 2019
Juror: Individual Artist Grants, Social Practice
Black Graduate Student Association Research Symposium
Northwestern University
April 14, 2018
Presenter: Contemporary Arts Ecosystems in Black Chicago
RÉSUMÉ
EDUCATION
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Master of Arts in Art Administration and Policy
September 2016-May 2018
The University of Chicago
Bachelors of Arts in Anthropology with Honors
September 2012-June 2016, Dean’s List 2012-2016
University College London, London, United Kingdom
Affiliate Student in Anthropology
Academic Year: September 2014-June 2015
La Fundación de José Ortega y Gassett, Toledo, Spain
Spanish Intensive Language Program
September 2013-December 2013
EMPLOYMENT
21c Museum Hotel Chicago
January 2020-Present
Museum Manager
Chicago Artists Coalition
September 2018-January 2020
SPARK Grant Manager
ACRE Projects
January 2019-February 2020
Director of Programming
Hyde Park Jazz Festival
October 2018-October 2019
Social Media and Communications Manager
Hyde Park Jazz Festival
February 2017-October 2018
Project Fellow
Department of Exhibitions, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
September 2017-May 2018
Graduate Curatorial Fellow
Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
January 2017-May 2018
Graduate Curatorial Assistant
Art Administration and Policy Department, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
September 2016-June 2017
Graduate Assistant
Chicago Dancemakers Forum
December 2016-August 2017
Administrative Intern
University College, London Ethnographic Collection
October 2014-June 2015
Assistant Curator
San Diego Museum of Man
June 2014-September 2014
Curatorial and Collections Management Intern