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Jose Gibran Villalobos

Lecturer

Contact

Bio

J. Gibran Villalobos (he/him) is an arts administrator, curator, and educator focused on civic engagement and cultural policy. He previously served as senior program officer for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). He has held post as assistant curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, public programs and partnerships manager for the Chicago Architecture Biennial, cultural liaison for the Chicago Park District, and curator-in-residence for the Chicago Cultural Center, and collections and exhibitions manager at the Department of Public Art in Glendale, Arizona.

In 2016 he attended the NALAC Advocacy Leadership Institute and was invited to the White House Office of Public Engagement, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to speak to issues affecting Latinos in Chicago. In 2017 he launched an inaugural summit of Latinx artists and administrators across the U.S; for this project he was awarded the Act Up Award by the Chicago Community Trust. His work has been presented at the Fabrica de Arte Cubano during the 2017 Havana Biennial. In 2019 he was an inaugural recipient of the Field Foundation’s Leaders for a New Chicago Award as well as the Americans for the Arts 2019 Leaders of Color Fellowship.

In 2020 he was accepted to the Civic Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy where he worked with government and nonprofit sector participants to think about effective policy for Chicago’s cultural industries. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Department of Arts Administration & Policy.

He has contributed to exhibitions such as Direct Message: Art, Language, and Power, presenting the artwork of Chicago artistic collectives and their relation to language and civic engagement. In 2019 he produced Common Exchange, an international convening, that brought together the Tate Modern, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Queens Museum, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, and other institutions to create dialogue on civic engagement within contemporary art institutions.

During the challenging times of the COVID pandemic, his focus turned to how artists, scholars, and policymakers champion ecofeminism, architecture and water. In the two-day symposium Fractures: Creating Around Devastation contributors led discussions, performances, and livestreamed from various sites as throughline in the relationship between active practitioners and civic activity.

Gibran has written catalog entries for Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Rodrigo Lara Zendejas, and Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford. In 2015 he curated Orients, Greg Bae's inaugural Chicago exhibition after his year long residency in Seoul. He contributed to the first retrospective on the work by artist Andrea Bowers focusing on the activism and archives from the grassroots coalition Centro Sin Fronteras. He has been a juror for the Chicago International Film Festival Out-Look series and been in conversation with artists and filmmakers. He has served as the 2022–2024 curator for the Low Residency MFA Graduate Exhibition at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Gibran currently serves as chair of the board of directors of the Chicago Artists Coalition, and previous founding member of the auxiliary board of the National Museum of Mexican Art. He holds a BA in Art History and a BS in Public Relations from Northern Arizona University and an MA in Arts Administration & Policy and MA in Modern Art History, Theory and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Awards

Civic Leadership Academy Fellow, Harris School of Policy, University of Chicago; Marion Kryczka Excellence in Teaching Award, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Field Foundation, 2019 Leaders for a New Chicago; Americans for the Arts Fellows of Color; Act Up Award, Chicago Community Trust; Propeller Grant Recipient September; Advocacy Leadership Institute Fellow, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture; SAIC Faculty Enrichment Grant; University of Chicago Office of Civic Engagement Americans for the Arts Advocate

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

Curating today is a dynamic, many-facetted activity with open boundaries: artists, writers, historians, editors, event-, festival- and symposium organizers generate projects, configure actors and move objects across platforms. This course will trace pathways through the many options contemporary art worlds hold. It will explore curatorial rationales, outcomes and support materials by parsing examples through images, readings and site visits. Students are encouraged to develop curatorial prototypes. Both playful experimentation and the framing of more formal proposals will be supported.

Class Number

1835

Credits

3

Description

Curating today is a dynamic, many-facetted activity with open boundaries: artists, writers, historians, editors, event-, festival- and symposium organizers generate projects, configure actors and move objects across platforms. This course will trace pathways through the many options contemporary art worlds hold. It will explore curatorial rationales, outcomes and support materials by parsing examples through images, readings and site visits. Students are encouraged to develop curatorial prototypes. Both playful experimentation and the framing of more formal proposals will be supported.

Class Number

1110

Credits

3

Description

This class associates training in professional practices with an overview of social, political and philosophical contexts of the grant funding in the United States. We will approach topics through a practical and theoretical lens to consider how the relationship between granting organizations and the administrator operates. Through a robust practice peer reviews, and a final mock grant application, you will refine an approach to the ecology of grants. You are expected to read and summarize the assigned texts, participate in discussions, introduce your ideas and questions to the class, write several iterations of texts, and create one grant application project. 

The course will be supplemented with conversations with practicing administrators from the executive director branch of organizations. The course is comprised of five phases that overlap with the germination of a grant application. Students are expected to contribute to course through their own research findings and iterative versions of their projects.

Class Number

1456

Credits

3

Description

The Management Studio is a space in which to explore 21st century leadership and management though a practice based investigation of contemporary organizational, project, and leadership models with an eye toward designing frameworks for the future. In addition to investigating so-called traditional management models, students will engage with current cultural management/leadership theory and practice around sustainability, networks, leadership, collaboration, equity, engagement, and governance, as well as emergent models for supporting innovation, creativity, and adaptation.

A distinguishing element of this course is the project-based learning environment. Management Studio integrates skill-building projects into the course work for the purpose of practicing and developing individual and group strategies. The projects in the studio are developed with external and internal partners and engage a broad set of skill building opportunities. Students select projects based on interest and personal development trajectories.

The premise of this course is that participants will be active leaders in shaping the future of cultural/arts management. As such, the course invites broad and active participation and preparation for every class meeting. As a ?hands on? examination of management practice and theory, students are urged to critically engage with the material and to participate in class discussions, projects, presentations and debates. Each student will work on an ongoing project in addition to class preparation to include reading, discussion and presentation. Class will generally be divided into two sections. The first section will include discussion and/or presentations of readings and assignments. The second section will include project report outs and project work/discussion.

Class Number

1907

Credits

3

Description

The Management Studio is a space in which to explore 21st century management environments though a practice based investigation of contemporary organizational, project, and leadership models with an eye toward designing frameworks for the future. In addition to investigating so-called traditional management models, students will engage with current cultural management theory and practice around strategic planning, budgeting and capitalization, evaluation, communication strategy, digital communication, public relations, and fundraising (grant writing, individual donors, presentation skills).

A distinguishing element of this course is the project-based learning environment. Management Studio integrates skill building projects into the course work for the purpose of practicing and developing individual and groups strategies and approaches to managing change/adaptation and cultural programming; supporting and engaging creativity; leading complex environments; building and understanding networks and connectivity; navigating teamwork, collaboration, self-organization, and problem-solving; and developing innovation practice skills. The projects in the studio are developed with external and internal partners and engage a broad set of skill building opportunities. Students select projects based on interest and a broad set of skill development opportunities. Management Studio II focuses on skills building in the areas of strategy and planning; resource development; working with artists; evaluation and data management; and communication strategy. In addition to team projects, there will be opportunities to cultivate individual concepts.

The premise of this course is that participants will be active leaders in shaping the future of cultural/arts management. As such, the course invites broad and active participation and preparation for every class meeting. As a ?hands on? examination of management practice and theory, students are urged to critically engage with the material and to participate in class discussions, projects, presentations and debates. Each student will work on an ongoing project(s) in addition to class preparation to include reading, discussion and presentation. The willingness and ability to collaborate and continue to develop skills in team-based work is an essential element of this course and a core component of grading. Class will generally be divided into two sections or function as workshops. The first section will include workshops and discussions/presentations The second section will include project report outs and project work/discussion. Each project will be developed through the workshops as real time case studies.

Class Number

1887

Credits

3

Description

This class associates training in professional practices with an overview of social, political and philosophical contexts of the grant funding in the United States. We will approach topics through a practical and theoretical lens to consider how the relationship between granting organizations and the administrator operates. Through a robust practice peer reviews, and a final mock grant application, you will refine an approach to the ecology of grants. You are expected to read and summarize the assigned texts, participate in discussions, introduce your ideas and questions to the class, write several iterations of texts, and create one grant application project. 

The course will be supplemented with conversations with practicing administrators from the executive director branch of organizations. The course is comprised of five phases that overlap with the germination of a grant application. Students are expected to contribute to course through their own research findings and iterative versions of their projects.

Class Number

1460

Credits

3

Description

A master's thesis is required for completion of the master's degree in arts administration. The thesis should demonstrate a student's ability to design, justify, execute, evaluate, and present the results of original research or of a substantial project. In this class students work closely with an MAAAP program advisor, and meet frequently with other MAAAP participants in groups and in individual meetings. The thesis is presented, in both written and oral form, to a thesis committee for both initial and final approval. You must be a Master of Arts in Arts Administration and Policy student to enroll in this course.

Class Number

2532

Credits

3