Tate has announced two new appointments to its curatorial team. Clara Kim has been appointed The Daskalopoulos Senior Curator, International Art (Africa, Asia & Middle East). Nancy Ireson has been appointed as Curator, International Art. Both will be taking up their positions in the coming months, ahead of the opening of the new Tate Modern on 17 June 2016.
Clara Kim’s role, which is funded by the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, will focus on the research, acquisition and exhibition of art from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, overseeing the curatorial department’s activities in relation to these regions. The D.Daskalopoulos Collection has established and been funding since 2010 a curatorial post in International Art to focus on contemporary and emerging international art, specifically from non-western regions, central to Tate’s commitment to broadening the geographical scope of the Collection.
Kim has worked in museums and non-profit organizations in the USA for the past fifteen years, including as senior curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and gallery director/curator of REDCAT in Los Angeles. She is currently serving as a senior researcher at the Asian Cultural Complex in Gwangju and as programme advisor for Kadist Foundation.
Recent curatorial projects include a mid-career survey of Abraham Cruzvillegas at the Walker Art Center, Haus der Kunst (Munich) and Museo Jumex and Museo Amparo (Mexico); an exhibition of Mark Bradford at the Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai); and An Album: Cinematheque Tangier, a project by Yto Barrada, and Minouk Lim: Heat of Shadows both at the Walker Art Center. She has also served on juries for Hugo Boss Asia Art Award, Sundance Film Festival, Creative Capital Foundation and United States Artists. Kim studied at the University of California, Berkeley (BA) and the University of Chicago (MA).
Nancy Ireson will work on new exhibitions for Tate Modern’s upcoming programme and research acquisitions for Tate’s collection. Ireson has been the Rothman Family Associate Curator at the Art Institute of Chicago since early 2013, where she has been responsible for the exhibition and acquisition of 19th and early 20th century works on paper. While at the AIC, Ireson curated Temptation! The Demons of James Ensor in partnership with the Getty Museum. She previously held posts at the Morgan Library and Museum, New York and at the Courtauld Gallery, where she curated Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril: Beyond the Moulin Rouge.
Ireson has also completed research fellowships with The Leverhulme Trust and the V&A and was Assistant Curator at the National Gallery in London for two years. In 2003 she was a Documentary Researcher for Tate Modern’s exhibition Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris. Ireson studied at the Courtauld Institute, where she obtained a BA in History of Art, an MA in European Art 1907-1945 and a PhD on the work of Henri Rousseau.