Emily Zimmerman is an accomplished curator and arts leader, with 20 years of experience and an extensive and multifaceted background in museum curation and arts education. Zimmerman is the Director of Exhibitions and Curatorial Affairs at the Arthur Ross Gallery of the University of Pennsylvania, where she has taught the Spiegel-Wilks Curatorial Seminar in Curating Contemporary Art for the Department of the History of Art. In 2024 Zimmerman wrote a $240,500 grant awarded from the Pew Center for Art and Heritage to the Arthur Ross Gallery, the first in the gallery’s history.
Bio
From 2017-2022 she was the Director + Curator of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery at the University of Washington’s School of Art + Art History + Design, where she advocated for artists, and worked with students to become active participants in their arts ecology. During her tenure at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Emily increased support for under-represented artists through new and expanded commissions, including the Jacob Lawrence Legacy Residency, which supported the creation of new work by Black artists from around the country, and an annual curatorial fellowship for graduate students of color. In 2017, she launched MONDAY, a W.A.G.E.-certified journal that presented experiments in arts writing, which she edited until March 2022.
In total, she has curated more than 50 commissions, solo and group exhibitions with artists such as Pierre Huyghe, Jesper Just, Guadalupe Maravilla, Kerry Tribe, and Marisa Williamson. She has also produced 300+ events, including lecture series, film series, performances, festivals, and workshops. Prior to joining the Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Zimmerman served as the Associate Curator of Programs at the Henry Art Gallery, where much of her work focused on building institutional partnerships and offering accessible off-site programming. She began her curatorial career as the Associate Curator at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), organizing film and lecture series, and commissioning new work from artists such as Melvin Moti, Ryan & Trevor Oakes, and Gordon Hall. Her 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.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
2007, Masters of Arts, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College2002, Bachelors of Arts, New York University
Professional Experience
Arthur Ross Gallery, University of PennsylvaniaDirector of Exhibitions and Curatorial Affairs (June 2024 – present)Interim Director of Exhibitions and Programs (September 2023 – May 2024)Assistant Director (April 2022 – September 2023)
Jacob Lawrence Gallery, University of WashingtonDirector + Curator2017-2022
Henry Art Gallery, University of WashingtonAssociate Curator of Public Programs2015-2017
Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, RensselaerCuratorial Assistant; Assistant Curator2008-2015
Philadelphia Museum of ArtCuratorial Intern, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art2007
Institute of Contemporary Art, PhiladelphiaCuratorial Intern2004
Location OneProgram Coordinator2001-2003
Teaching
Visiting Lecturer | Department of the History of Art | University of Pennsylvania2023-presentInstructed ARTH 3970: Spiegel-Wilks Curatorial Seminar in Curating Contemporary Art during the fall semester of 2023.
Visiting Lecturer | School of Art + Art History + Design | University of Washington2017-2022Provided instruction in Art 496: Curating Contemporary Art and Art 590: Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar in Professional Practices, teaching two courses annually.
Grants/Residencies/Panels
2024
Panelist, The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation GrantVisiting critic, Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania
2023
Fellow, Association of Art Museum Curators Curatorial Digital Leadership Fellowship
2022
Panelist, National Endowment for the Arts, Museum Panel
2020
Reviewer for the 2021 Creative Capital AwardsConference Benefit Committee, Association of Art Museum Curators 2020 ConferenceAdvisory board for the University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Desig
2019
Panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Museums PanelConference Benefit Committee, Association of Art Museum Curators 2020 ConferenceJuror for the James W. Ray Award, from The Artist Trust | Frye Art Museum ConsortiumCommittee member for the Seattle Arts Leadership Team (SALT)Advisory board for the University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design
2018
Juror Gallery 4Culture 2018-2019 SeasonPanelist for On the Boards NW New Works FestivalAdvisory board for the University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design
2017
Panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Media Arts PanelJuror for INTERSTATE, Sarah Spurgeon Gallery, Central Washington UniversityAdvisory board for the University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design
2016
Juror for the TWIST: Seattle Queer Film FestivalCareer Incentive Fund Grant from the New Foundation SeattlePanelist for the Herb Alpert Awards in the ArtsBanff Centre Literary Arts Residency
2015
Reviewer for the MAP FundParticipant in PICA’s Creative Exchange LabBoard of Directors, Wave Farm (Acra, NY)
2014
Panelist for NYSCA’s Electronic Media & Film Grant Program
2013
Panelist for NYSCA’s Electronic Media & Film Grant ProgramPanelist for NYSCA’s Individual Artists Grant Program
2012
Panelist for NYSCA’s Media Distribution Grant
2011
Lori Ledis Curatorial Fellow, BRIC Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, NYTwo-week curatorial residency in Busan, Korea at Space Bandee
2010
Awarded Best Emerging Curator by the editors of the Metroland.
Speaking Engagements
Moderator, “Voices + Voids: Reclaiming and Transcoding Our Data as Performance” with University of Washington Assistant Professors Audrey Desjardins, Afroditi Psarra, and Bonnie Whiting on November 20, 2020.
Moderator, “Local Voices: Collaboration at the University of Washington” Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) Art Curators Conference 2020 online on May 4, 2020.
Conversation, “Multiple Voices to Build Inclusion” organized by the Association of Art Museum Curators at the Seattle Art Museum on November 13, 2018.
Conversation, “Lauren Mackler + Emily Zimmerman (with special guest Cally Spooner)” for the Seattle Art Fair Talks on artist experiments with public access television on August 5, 2016.
Moderator, “Looking Back to Look Forward: Art & Technology” at General Assembly as part of Made in Seattle Week on June 11, 2016.
Talk, “Commissioning new work at the intersection of art, science, and technology,” Microsoft’s Studio 99, December 9, 2015.
Talk, “The Museum of Obsolescence,” The Lost Museum Symposium, Brown University, May 6 – 8, 2015.
Talk, “Skins, Screens, and Interface: Artbreak with Emily Zimmerman” Henry Art Gallery, February 7, 2015.
Moderator, “The Jaffe Colloquium: Held in Trust” at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, on May 1-2, 2014.
Talk, “Held in Trust” at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst on March 27, 2014.
Panelist, “Feminism, Technology, and Visuality,” as part of the Now! Visual Culture conference at New York University on June 2, 2012.
Moderator, “The Periphery of Perception” panel discussion with Ryan and Trevor Oakes, Michael Benson, and Damien James at EMPAC on April 18, 2012.
Talk, “New York Performance Art Since 1960,” at Dongeui University Art Department (Busan, Korea), October 11, 2011.
Press
Curatorial
The Stranger, “An Exit Interview with Emily Zimmerman” by Jas Keimig (March 18, 2022)
Vanguard Seattle, “Emily Zimmerman: Keeping the Care in Curating at the Jake” by T.S. Flock (March 12,2019)
University of Washington, “Curating the Future” (February 27, 2019)
Metroland, “Best Emerging Curator: Emily Zimmerman” (July 2010)
Exhibitions and Events
Astria Suparak: Asian Futures, Without AsiansYahoo News, “‘Outsize, empty, mute Asians’: ‘Virtually Asian’ video essay critiques portrayals of Asians in popular sci-fi” by Sarah Yukiko (November 22, 2021)
James Coupe: Exercises in PassivityThe Daily, “Coupe’s ‘Exercises in Passivity’ explores our changing relationship with technology at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery” by Natalie Rand (August 6, 2019)
Danny Giles: The Practice and Science of Drawing a Sharp White BackgroundArt Practical, “Danny Giles Draws a Black Frame Around Whiteness” by Emily Pothast (February 20, 2019)
Crosscut, “Jacob Lawrence and the Art of Radical Imagination” by Mason Byran (February 15, 2019)
Clotilde Jiménez: Apple of My EyeThe Stranger, “Who Knew Ass-Eating Could Be Portrayed So Succulently?” by Jasmyne Kemig (December 19, 2018)
Wikipedia Edit-a-thonsSeattle Escribe, “Feminismo en la Jake, mi tía Rosa y la Historia de Todxs” by Moises J. Himmelfarb (May 18, 2018)
Kerry Tribe: Standardized PatientCrosscut, “8 Things to do in Seattle” by Brangien Davis (August 23, 2018)
Material PerformanceThe Stranger, “Recommended: Material Performance” by Emily Pothast (November 2017)
Untold PassageSeattle Weekly, “Poetic Meditations in an Emergency” by Minh Nguyen (July 2017)
Artforum, “W.I.T.C.H. Way” by Wendy Vogel (August 2017)
Melvin Moti: The Vision MachineInside Rensselaer, “Cinema Without Film” (November 2014)
So To SpeakTimes Union, “Word Play” by Amy Griffin (February 2013)
Observer Effects Lecture SeriesChronogram, “Funny Stories about Death” by Sparrow (February 2013)
Uncertain SpectatorArt 21 blog, “A Willing Participant in EMPAC’s Uncertain Spectator,“ by Damien James (February 11, 2011)
Times Union, “Art on the Edge,” by Tom Keyser (December 19, 2010)
The Sunday Gazette, “Uncertain Spectator,” by Karen Bjornland (November 2010)
Hyper-runtCityPaper, “Pick of the Litter,” by A.D. Amorosi (October 2004)
Artblog, “Thumbs up for Hyper-Runt Hybrids,“ by Collette Copeland (October 2004)