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Erin Joyce FINE ARTS CURATOR In October 2017, the Heard Museum announced the hire of a new Fine Arts Curator, Erin Joyce. With over eight years in the contemporary art world, Joyce has worked as an independent curator and journalist, focusing on contemporary Indigenous North American art, as well as contemporary Middle Eastern and North African art. Joyce will be working with the team at the Heard to usher in a new wave of contemporary Indigenous artists. “I think it is so important, not only at institutions like the Heard, but for the art world in general, to acknowledge and embrace the significant contributions Indigenous artists are making to visual and material culture, and more importantly, their contributions to discursive conversations about broader culture, race, politics, and environmental justice,” said Joyce. Joyce holds a Bachelor of Arts in the History of Art from the University of North Texas, studied contemporary art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London, and received her Master of Arts in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University. Joyce has worked with both commercial galleries as well as non-profit art spaces and museums. Her notable exhibitions have included: You Are On Indian Land, which opened in New York at Radiator Gallery in spring 2015, and traveled to the Institute of American Indian Art - Museum of Contemporary Native Art in Santa Fe, NM, completing its run at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. The exhibition, which explored themes of identity, and appropriation and misappropriation of Indigenous cultures, featured Postcommodity, Michael Namingha, Edgar Heap of Birds, and Dana Claxton, as well as several other prominent American Indian and First Nations artists. Her spring 2017 exhibition, My Country Tis of Thy People, You’re Dying, featured in the New York Times, , dealt with environmental justice and energy extraction, unsanctioned land-rights abuses, and Indigenous sovereignty, featuring Galanin, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Tom Jones, and Steven Yazzie, as well as a video installation by Winter Count, an Indigenous art collective. “I am interested in creating environments within the gallery space and activating those spaces in new and engaging ways,” said Joyce. “I want to nurture existing audiences of contemporary art, while
William Ambrose Untitled Portrait of Erin Joyce Oil on Canvas 2015
also cultivating and inspiring a new cohort of art enthusiasts,” she remarked. “I want to disrupt notions of American Indian art, create sustainable platforms for the presentation of new works, and educate the public on Indigeneity, and I cannot think of a better venue for that than the Heard.” In addition to her curatorial work, Joyce is a respected journalist, writing for publications such as Hyperallergic, Canvas Magazine, Salon, and GOOD Magazine. Her writing will also appear in the forthcoming volume, A Companion on Contemporary Craft, edited by Namita Wiggers and published by Wylie-Blackwell. Joyce grew up in Northern Arizona, and has lived and worked in London, New York, Dallas, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, and the Central Coast of California. “My roots here in Arizona make my becoming a part of the Heard team so much more valuable to me personally,” she remarked. “It’s an exciting time for contemporary Indigenous art, for Phoenix, and for the Heard, and I am honored to be part of this momentum.”
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