The School of Art is pleased to announce the appointment of Elizabeth Chodos as Assistant Professor of Curatorial Practice. Chodos, who has served as director of the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art since 2017, will remain in that role independent of her new faculty position in the School of Art.
In this new role, Chodos will help to integrate research components of curatorial practice, cultural and civic engagement, and public programming into the undergraduate curriculum. Through this appointment, Chodos will help to bridge the interiority of studio practice with the exteriority of institutional activity. Her plans include using Platform, CMU’s new space for public engagement with contemporary art (currently closed due to COVID-19), to teach an undergraduate curatorial practicum for students to learn how to realize an exhibition from ideation to execution. In addition, she will continue her engagement within our graduate program, further formalizing her mentorship of the master’s candidates during their thesis exhibition.
Chodos also plans to organize a class that examines both historical and contemporary alternatives to dominant arts institutions in response to a climate where museums must reckon with oppressive operational and programmatic models. This course will look at artist-run spaces and practices to envision a more just model for arts organizations while encouraging students to examine how institutions operate in the broader fabric of society.
“Since arriving at CMU only three years ago, Elizabeth has transformed the Miller Gallery from a more traditional exhibition venue into the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art, which has provided CMU with a dynamic platform for broader engagement with new and pressing ideas across multiple fields of creative experimentation, including community discussions, campus collaborations, publications, and symposia, as well as virtual tours, readings, artist talks, and more,” said Head of School, Charlie White. “Elizabeth’s forward-thinking and critical examination of the role of art and ideas in society will challenge students to consider the power and politics of public exhibitions and civic engagement, while also contemplating the life of their work once it leaves the studio and enters into the public realm.”
Chodos transitioned the Miller Gallery into the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art last fall to deepen the university’s engagement with a wide range of contemporary artistic practices and to broaden research in contemporary art. During her time at the Miller ICA, she has curated Paradox: The Body in the Age of AI, and solo exhibitions of Andrea Zittel, alumna Carrie Schneider (BHA ’01), and Jacolby Satterwhite (forthcoming). Prior to joining CMU, Chodos was Executive and Creative Director of the Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency. She has also served as director at Threewalls, co-founder of Hand in Glove, and co-founder of Common Field. She earned her bachelor’s degree in art history and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, and her dual master’s degree in art history, theory and criticism, and arts administration at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.