Contributor Bios

Azam Abidov

Speaker – Session 4: Overcoming barriers

Azam Abidov (Aazam Abidov or A’zam Obid) is an Uzbekistan-based poet, short story writer, translator, and independent cultural organizer. He is the founder and curator of an international writer and artist residency program established in 2018, which has brought together over 100 participants from more than 20 countries. Working without institutional or government support, he has built a unique platform for cross-cultural dialogue, creative exchange, and literary collaboration in Central Asia.

An award-winning author, Abidov has participated in international residencies, festivals, and literary programs worldwide, including the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He translates both classical and contemporary Uzbek literature into English, contributing to its global visibility.

He has also worked as a cultural adviser, interpreter, and communications specialist. His work focuses on developing sustainable, inclusive cultural initiatives and expanding access to international artistic exchange in underrepresented regions.

Bruno Alves de Almeida

speaker – Session 5: Environmental Sustainability

Bruno Alves de Almeida (Brazil/Portugal, 1987) is a curator who develops site-responsive projects that bring artists into dialogue with the social, spatial, and ecological realities of specific places, from metropolises such as São Paulo to smaller cities like Maastricht and remote regions such as the Swedish Arctic. Working across contemporary art, architecture, and other disciplines, he develops exhibitions, public programmes, and commissions that extend beyond traditional art spaces into the public sphere and everyday life. 

He is the Curator and Resident Liaison at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Netherlands, one of Europe’s leading post-academic multidisciplinary institutes. In 2025, collaborated with Tate, UK, as a 2025 Brooks International Fellow, and was awarded the Mondriaan Fonds Curator Researcher Grant for his project Threshold Institutions, Liminal Practices. In 2024, he was Artistic Co-Director of the Luleå Biennial, Sweden. He is an alumnus of the De Appel Curatorial Programme (2018/19), Netherlands.

_{Photograph by YIM Sui Fong.}

Laura Barlow

Speaker – Session 1:
Origins: Beginning a Residency in a Historic Space

Laura Barlow (she/her) is a curator of international modern and contemporary art who has worked with museums, non-profit organisations, and independent art spaces and projects in Africa, Asia, the UK, and the USA. She is experienced in caring for and building collections of international art, as well as researching, curating exhibitions, publishing, and programming public events with artists and cultural thinkers, with a specialist focus on multi-dimensional sculpture, public art, and architecture.

Laura is currently Senior Curator of Research and Collections at the Henry Moore Studios & Gardens, Hertfordshire, UK. From 2019-21, she was Director and Senior Curator of Rubaiyat Qatar, a contemporary art quadrennial at Qatar Museums, Doha, Qatar. In parallel, Laura was curator of a series of public art commissions with contemporary artists. Prior to this, Laura was Curator at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar, from 2014-19. She was Projects Curator at e-flux, New York, from 2010-13, and Managing Editor of Art Agenda Reviews at e-flux from 2010-12. Laura is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art, London.

Gareth Bell-Jones

Speaker – Session 1:
Origins: Beginning a Residency in a Historic Space

Gareth Bell-Jones a curator based in London and the director of Flat Time House (FTHo) the former Peckham home of post-war conceptual artist John Latham. Since 2015, Bell-Jones has developed the exhibition programme, publishing, residencies, partnerships, research and education outcomes. From 2010-14 he was a curator at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire and curatorial tutor at RCA. He has taught widely including Courtauld, RCA, Carnegie Mellon, Sandberg Instituut, Jan van Eyck Academie and Yale. Recent independent projects include the Barbara Steveni solo exhibition I Find Myself for Modern Art Oxford and Void Art Centre, Derry, 2025/26. Bell-Jones founded the London Residency Network in 2022 and co-founded the APG successor organisation Incidental Unit in 2016. He sits on steering committees with National Trust and Policylab, a UK Civil Service initiative placing artists in government departments. Bell-Jones is a member of the British Art Network and the Executive Committee of AICA UK.

Charlie Betts

Speaker – Session 4: Overcoming Barriers

Charlie Betts is Public Programme Curator at Watts Gallery, managing and curating the Artist in Residence programme. Previously a resident artist at the gallery, she brings a creative and strategic approach to developing programmes that connect heritage craft with contemporary practice. Charlie has extensive experience in arts and heritage sectors, leading income-generating public programmes, creative development and learning initiatives, and partnerships that engage diverse audiences. She is also a practising UK-based artist working across drawing, painting, and performance, exploring memory and domestic spaces through embodied mark-making.

Hannah Blunt

Speaker – Session 5: Environmental Sustainability

Hannah Blunt (she/her) is the inaugural Director of the Langlais Art Preserve in Cushing, Maine, a 90-acre nature and sculpture preserve stewarded by Georges River Land Trust. She leads the preserve’s artistic vision, partnerships, and public engagement, including launching the land trust’s Creative Nature Programs, which integrate art, ecology, and place-based learning. Blunt has also developed several contemporary artist engagements at the preserve, including Forest Geometries by interdisciplinary artist and woodworker Gina Siepel and the forthcoming project SEED with Maine Visual Arts Fellow Lihua Lei Farley. Blunt previously served as an associate curator at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum and Langlais Curator for Special Projects at the Colby College Museum of Art.

Allison Cross

Speaker – Session 6: Partnerships

Allison Cross is Executive Director of MANITOGA/The Russel Wright Design Center since 2013. A nonprofit professional specializing in art and architecture for many years, Cross has expertise in strategic planning, Board and resource development, architecture and landscape restoration, public programs, and audience engagement. She is the founding Director of Manitoga’s Art + Design Residency Program, initiated in 2014 to foster creative responses to Manitoga that invoke Russel and Mary Wright’s legacy of creative experimentation and celebration of place. Cross led the strategic development and implementation of the Russel & Mary Wright Design Gallery at Manitoga which opened in 2021. Prior to joining M/RWDC, Cross held positions at Dia Art Foundation and the Philip Johnson Glass House and was Assistant Professor of Environmental Design at Syracuse University in New York and Florence, Italy.

Rebecca Farley

Speaker– Session 2 :
Digital / Online Residencies: Navigating the Virtual Space

Rebecca Farley is a freelance Associate with Arts&Heritage and an Associate Researcher at Newcastle University, where her research and writing explores the intersections between heritage places and contemporary visual arts practice, with a particular focus on commissioning and artists’ residencies. From 2023-25 Rebecca was Project Lead on the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project ‘Networking international and transnational approaches to contemporary art in heritage practice’, which set up a pilot series of experimental virtual artists residencies in three UK Artist House Museums. Her work has been published in international journals including Public Art Dialogue, Visual Culture in Britain, Journal of Heritage Tourism, Heritage and Society, and Museum & Society.

Mónica Galvan

Speaker – Session 4: Overcoming Barriers

Mónica (she/her) serves as the Program Coordinator at the James Castle House in Boise, Idaho. In this role, she is dedicated to nurturing meaningful community partnerships and developing artist residencies, culturally rich exhibitions, and site-based educational programs. She is especially passionate about elevating creatives from diverse backgrounds and highlighting how representation and lived experiences can strengthen and enrich the local community. 

Born in Mexico and raised in Idaho, Mónica’s spent over a decade as a high school arts educator, where she fostered learning and creativity both in and beyond the classroom. In recent years, she co-founded Peques Nature Club and Latinas Mercadito, two community-centered organizations that offer unique cultural enrichment experiences. For Mónica, community connection and art are major guiding forces that have shaped her personal and professional life. 

Alex Gartelmann

Speaker – Session 6: Partnerships

Alex Gartelmann (New Jersey, 1984) is an artist who lives and works in Milwaukee, WI. He is the Program Director and Site Steward of the Mary Nohl Art Environment for the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. He is one half of the artist collaborative Sebura&Gartelmann with artist Jonas Sebura, and a partner in Fools Gold with artist Rachel Reichert. He received his BFA from The University of the Arts, and his MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Deidre Hamlar

Speaker – Session 1:
Origins: Beginning a Residency in a Historic Space

Deidre Hamlar is Director of the Aminah Robinson Legacy Project at the Columbus Museum of Art. A native of Columbus, Ohio, she has a BA in Sociology from UCLA, and a JD from Howard University School of Law. Hamlar has worked in law, education, and arts administration across the US for over 40 years. On behalf of the Aminah Robinson Trust, Hamlar oversees Robinson’s Home Studio and an annual national residency and local fellowship program for Black artists and writers housed therein; a five museum touring exhibition, Aminah Robinson: Journeys Home, a Visual Memoir, 2025-2028; a representation relationship with Fort Gansevoort Gallery, NY; and the archive of her books, writings and personal effects that Robinson bequeathed to the museum at her death. Hamlar co-curated CMA’s 2020 retrospective exhibition, Raggin’ On: The Art of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson’s House and Journals, and contributed to the award-winning catalog of the same name.

Alexandra House

Speaker – Session 3:
Co-Creation & Sharing Space

Alexandra House is Director of the Borlase Smart John Wells Trust, Cornwall, where she works with and supports a broad range of artists at all stages in their careers, including management of the Trust’s residency programme. The BSJW Trust owns and manages three historic artists’ studio sites, Grade II* Porthmeor Studios in St Ives, and Trewarveneth Studios and Grade II* Anchor Studio in Newlyn. Alexandra also sits on the Advisory Board for AA2A and with a background working in the visual arts for many years, before relocating to Cornwall in early 2023, held roles at the Whitechapel Gallery and National Gallery, London.

Laura Hussey

speaker – Session 6: Partnerships

Laura Hussey is the House and Gardens Manager at 575 Wandsworth Road – overseeing all operations, including community partnerships, programming, people management, visitor experience, and conservation. She first joined the NT in 2013 as Acting House Steward at Osterley Park. She also worked at Sutton House in 2015-2016. She graduated from University of Exeter and did post-doctoral work at Oxford Brookes University.

Judith King

Speaker – Session 2:
Digital / Online Residencies: Navigating the Virtual Space

Judith King has over 25 years of professional experience in curating and advising national and international heritage organisations, museums, independent trusts, cathedrals and local authorities to advocate and deliver major contemporary art commissions and creative programmes at their sites. In 2009 she set up Arts&Heritage, an agency that forges collaborations between communities, contemporary artists and heritage organisations to create new perspectives for diverse audiences. As Senior Research Associate at Newcastle University (2017-2025) Judith was Co-Investigator on ‘Networking international and transnational approaches to contemporary art in heritage’ and ‘On-site/Off-site: Thomas Bewick and contemporary art at Cherryburn’. In addition, she has co-written policy-driven research reports on volunteering and collections management for the National Trust in England. 

Kristin Lessard

Speaker – Session 6: Partnerships

Kristin Lessard is a National Park Service professional whose career since 2008 has spanned interpretation, education, public engagement, and arts-focused programming. As Visitor Experience Program Manager at Weir Farm National Historical Park—the only national park dedicated to American painting—she leads initiatives that integrate contemporary artistic practice with a historic creative landscape. Kristin manages the park’s nationally recognized Artist‑in‑Residence program, collaborating with artists across disciplines and supporting them from selection through public engagement. She also oversees a wide range of art and history education programs that serve approximately 35,000 visitors annually, fostering meaningful connections between artists, visitors, partners, and place.

Rahel Levine

Speaker – Session 3:
Co-Creation & Sharing Space

Rahel Levine is the Residency Programme Manager at Hospitalfield in Angus Scotland.  They are an arts worker and a practising artist. They firmly believe in the benefits of artist led models of working within the visual arts.

Rahel has over decade of experience working in teaching, public galleries and museums, artist run spaces, and commercial galleries. They have worked extensively in the UK and USA for organisations such as The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow Life, the university of California Irvine and Ochi Gallery amongst others. They are also currently a board member of the Dundee artist run gallery Generator Projects. Rahel studied their BA at Glasgow School of Art and their MFA at The University of California, Irvine.

In all areas of their work, they are interested in supporting artists to make their work and advance their practices, as well as furthering critical discourse in contemporary art. 

Celina Loh

speaker – Session 2:
Digital / Online Residencies: Navigating the Virtual Space

Celina Loh is an independent curator and Founder of In Transit Space CIC, a platform to learn about access in the arts through experimentation, dialogue and practice. Her work centres on care and relational approaches, examining how access can extend beyond protocol into lived, embodied processes. She approaches online and home-based contexts as active sites of making, rather than as secondary or supportive modes. She is particularly interested in how cultural difference shapes experiences of access, with her current research funded by British Art Network. 

She was Project Manager at FRANK Fair Artist Pay, contributing to the development of tools supporting fair practice and Project Coordinator for London Sculpture Week. Celina has curated exhibitions at Museum of the Home, HOME Manchester, Chelsea Space and the Zabludowicz Collection. Her work has been supported by Arts Council England, Fenton Arts Trust and British Council. 

Heidi Schwegler

Speaker – Session 4: Overcoming Barriers

Heidi Schwegler works in the interstitial ruins of Beijing, Los Angeles, New York City and suburban America. She rescues haphazardly disused scraps from the bowels of the megalopolis: chicken bones, Big Gulps, broken signs, lost shoes, crumpled pylons, take out containers. Plastic, fiber, and bone: these materials decay but never decompose. She resynthesizes her sources into facsimiles with cast glass, gold, silver, wax, resulting in artwork that persists in a “living death.” Recent exhibition venues include Laguna Art Museum (CA), Garrett Museum (IN), WBG London Projects (London), Asphodel (New York), Marjorie Barrick Museum (NV). Schwegler is a Ford Family Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and a Yaddo Artist-in-Residence. Schwegler is the founder of Yucca Valley Material Lab, a platform for making and thinking.

Gina Siepel

Speaker – Session 5: Environmental Sustainability

Gina Siepel (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and woodworker. Gina’s sculptural, participatory, and time-based works are rooted in an abiding fascination and deep relationship with land and material, and arise from engagements in the forests, waterways, and cities of the northeastern US. Their practice employs a queer perspective on ecology, site-specificity, and history, integrating conceptual concerns with a focus on wood as a natural and cultural material. Gina’s work has been shown in museums, galleries, and outdoor sites nationally, including the Museum for Art in Wood, the Colby Museum, the DeCordova Museum, Smith College Museum of Art, Vox Populi Gallery, and the Langlais Art Preserve. Gina has received fellowships from Skowhegan, the Winterthur Museum, the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute at Smith College, and the Vermont Studio Center, among others. She has been awarded grants from the Center for Craft, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Puffin Foundation, and the Northampton Arts Council.

Jillian Steinhauer

Speaker – Session 6: Partnerships

Jillian Steinhauer writes about art and comics for publications including the New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Nation. She won a 2023 Rabkin Prize and a 2019 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers grant, and was formerly an editor at Hyperallergic. Alongside her writing, she also teaches journalism and organizes with the National Writers Union’s Freelance Solidarity Project.

Shannon Stratton

Speaker – Session 3:
Co-Creation & Sharing Space

Shannon Stratton is a curator, writer and artist  and Executive Director of Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency. Curatorial work includes: Between You and Me, The John Michael Kohler Arts Center (2020); Roger Brown: Virtual Still Lifes,  (2019); Tanya Aguiñiga: Craft and Care, (2018); Atmosphere for Enjoyment: Harry Bertoia’s Environment for Sound (2016) (The Museum of Arts and Design) among others.  She was the winner of Lois Moran Award for Craft Writing in 2022. Stratton co-founded the Chicago non-profit Threewalls in 2003 where she was director until 2015. In 2026 she launched tête-à-tête-à-tête, a 5-exhibition, 150 sq. foot curatorial project.

Livia Wang

Speaker – Session 2:
Digital / Online Residencies: Navigating the Virtual Space

Livia Wang is the Creative Director of the Van Gogh House London. The culmination of 7 years of research and study, Livia oversaw the conservation and renovation of the house from a derelict building into a centre for contemporary art; hosting artist residencies, exhibitions and education projects.

Van Gogh’s time in London as a young man was extremely formative. Livia has driven a programme that both examines this significant point in the artist’s life, as well as telling the wider story of the 200-year-old building and its many inhabitants.

Alongside her work at Van Gogh House, Livia works as a lecturer and designer. She is Design Fellow in Architecture at the University of Cambridge, and has completed projects across the UK and China.

Michelle West

Speaker – Session 1:
Origins: Beginning a Residency in a Historic Space

Michelle West brings over fifteen years of experience in the arts to her position as program director for the Harpo Foundation, including several years developing and overseeing residency programs. For four years, she served as the director of the Acadia Summer Arts Program in Bar Harbor, Maine, an interdisciplinary artist and arts-professional residency program, which hosted over one hundred visual artists, writers, choreographers, and curators each summer. She also served as residency manager at Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, California. She received her M.A. in art history, theory, and criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her B.A. in art history from the University of Florida. She has held curatorial positions at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Norton Museum of Art, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.