VCU news

By Leila Ugincius

Stephanie Smith will step down as chief curator of the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University on Oct. 1. Smith has served as the ICA’s chief curator since fall 2016. She was deeply involved in the opening of the ICA in 2018 and helped shape its curatorial vision and program. Smith spearheaded several landmark exhibitions, collaborated on various initiatives across VCU and Richmond and, alongside the curatorial team, built a robust series of innovative programs that deepened the ICA’s engagement with the community. 

“Stephanie [Smith] was instrumental in setting the ICA’s curatorial vision and under her leadership we have built an incredible lineup of timely and incisive exhibitions and programs. We are thankful to Stephanie for her many contributions to the ICA and wish her all the best in future endeavors,” said Dominic Willsdon, executive director of the ICA.

“I’m proud of all I’ve accomplished here — from our work opening the ICA, to building a vibrant curatorial program and providing a platform for artists and other collaborators whose work speaks to the social and political conditions of our time,” Smith said. “For some time I’ve been thinking about what my next step might be, and in the last few months of the pandemic I’ve felt the pull to move back to Chicago where my family is based. With  ‘Commonwealth’ opening next month after two years of collaboration, and the ICA preparing for the next phase of its work, it feels like the right moment to depart.”

As the inaugural chief curator, Smith led the ICA’s artistic program, working with other leaders to develop long-term program plans and build the curatorial team, and establishing a curatorial vision that brought artists together with the VCU community and larger cultural communities in Richmond and beyond. Smith organized interdisciplinary exhibitions that connected audiences to both established and fresh voices, interwove dynamic local communities with global networks, and supported the creation of new work — including public and participatory projects beyond the ICA’s walls.

These projects include co-curating the ICA’s inaugural exhibition, “Declaration;” creating the “Provocations” series of annual, long-term, site-specific commissions; and co-curating “Commonwealth,” a multiyear initiative of the ICA, Philadelphia Contemporary and Beta-Local in San Juan, Puerto Rico, opening Sept. 12. She also arranged for the ICA to serve as the only U.S. venue for a recent major survey of work by The Otolith Group organized by the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands. 

Rather than launch an immediate search for Smith’s replacement, the ICA will factor her departure into its long-term strategy for the curatorial team.