A Conversation Between Sister Cities

Having worked in the field of contemporary art for nearly 20 years, Veronica L. Hogan serves as Executive Director for Atlanta Contemporary. In addition to her director role, Hogan continues to engage the art
community as arts administrator, art historian, board member, curator, educator, and lecturer. She has curated numerous exhibitions in Atlanta for Agnes Scott College, Kessenich Contemporary (2011-2014), the Art Institute of Atlanta and Decatur (2009-2013), and was gallery and sales director for Fay Gold Gallery (2004-2010). Hogan earned her M. Phil in Art History from St. Andrews University, Scotland, in 2004.

A former student of the Ecole nationale des Chartes and the Institut national du Patrimoine (Paris), Annabelle Ténèze is chief curator and Director of les Abattoirs in Toulouse, France (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art - FRAC Occitanie Toulouse) since 2016. Annabelle Ténèze was first curator of the graphic arts cabinet at the Picasso-Paris National Museum (2006 to 2012). She then heads the museum of contemporary art in Rochechouart until 2016. In Rochechouart Museum she has organized the solo exhibitions of Jules de Balincourt, Eduardo Basualdo, Tomaz Furlan, Raoul Hausmann, Folkert de Jong, Kent Monkman, Laure Prouvost and Carolee Schneemann. She has also co-organized several exhibitions dedicated to women artists (Paint, she Said and Lucy’s Iris. Contemporary African Women Artists in partnership with the MUSAC in León and the CAAM of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria). Since her arrival at les Abattoirs, the following exhibitions have been presented: Daniel Spoerri: les dadas des deux Daniel, Around Nouveau Réalisme (in partnership with the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris), Suspended Animation (in partnership with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC), Medellín, A Colombian Story. From the 1950s to the present (in partnership with the Museo de Antioquia Medellín), Zero Gravity. An artistic Approach of the Space Adventure (in partnership with CNES), Picasso and the Exodus. A Spanish History of Art in Resistance (in partnership with the Musée national Picasso-Paris), the programme of exhibitions I am a Native Foreigner, Viva Gina! A Lifetime of Art (in partneship with Mudima Foundation, Milano) as well as several monographic retrospective and projects : Joël Andrianomearisoa, Eduardo Chillida, David Claerbout, Béatrice Cussol, Hessie, Marguerite Humeau, Renaud Jerez, Jacqueline de Jong, Takesada Matsutani, Presence Panchounette, Laure Prouvost, Maya Rochat, Vivien Roubaud, Judit Reigl, Kevin Rouillard, Peter Saul, Carolee Schneemann, Gisèle Vienne, etc.

Maurita N. Poole, Ph.D. is director and curator at Clark Atlanta University Art Museum (CAUAM). She received her doctorate in cultural anthropology from Emory University, and her professional training was attained at Williams College Museum of Art, The Walters Art Museum, The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and Spelman College Museum of Fine Art.
As the museum’s director, her emphasis is strengthening the organization’s infrastructure and providing opportunities for the next generation of museum professionals. She oversees the Tina Dunkley Fellowship in American Art, a collaborative Diversity in Art Museum Leadership Initiative (DAMLI) involving CAUAM, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), and the Zuckerman Museum of Art (ZMA). In addition, she is developing the Black Optics Artist Residency, a platform that connects artists of African descent from the American South to artists and institutions in the Global South.
Her curatorial projects focus on modern and contemporary African and African Diaspora art. Her exhibitions at CAUAM include Crafting for Life (2019), Soleil de la Conscience/Sun of Consciousness (2019), The Sweet Spot (2018), Frederick D. Jones and The Social Surreal (2017), and Bitter/Sweet (2016). At Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) where she served as the Andrew Mellon Curatorial Fellow, she curated Fathi Hassan: Migration of Signs (2015), Zanele Muholi (2014), and Myra Greene: Selections from My White Friends (2013). Her curatorial and institutional projects have been supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The National Endowment for the Humanities, Ford Foundation, and The Walton Family Foundation.

Les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse, opened in 2000, is a unique institution created through the merger of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Toulouse and the Contemporary Art Regional Fund. Its collections and exhibition programme are exhibited on site and within the Occitanie.

Amanda Gann (Interpreter) is a theatre artist and Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University. Her current work, at the intersection of performance and research, focuses on social and theatrical manifestations of grief in post-WWI France. As an actress, she collaborates with international companies such as The Poets’ Theatre, with whom she recently performed Samuel Beckett’s Not I/Pas moi in both English and French (MAC, Belfast, NI). She also works as a literary translator: her translation of Jean-René Lemoine’s L’Adoration received a staged reading at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center in December 2019