The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of
Pennsylvania announces the departure of Kate Kraczon who assumed
her new post as curator at the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown
University on August 1. Most recently, she held the position of Laporte
Associate Curator at ICA 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.