Programs
CRB is host to free programs, forging frameworks where art, design, education, and the consumer form of a bookshop intersect.
Past Programs
On exhibition through Fri, May 8, 2020
Free and open to the public
Na Kim’s site-specific wall drawing titled SET v.19: graphic uses a series of formal design elements—color, pattern, geometry, typography, and text—pulled from the catalogue of visual graphics in her 2015 monograph titled SET published by Roma Publications.→
Tue, Mar 31, 2020
*Cancelled due to Coronavirus
How to make freedom and playfulness, traditionally granted to artists, accessible to a wider audience? And, how to design situations or objects that stimulate activity and participation, that could lead to a transformation in a viewer or a social context? During this talk, Amsterdam-based designers Vit & Tereza Ruller (studio The Rodina) try to answer these questions.→
Presented by the CCA Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice in partnership with CCA’s MFA Design
Fri, Feb 21, 2020
9:30 am–12 pm
Event closed: seating at capacity
Curator and art historian Elena Filipovic discusses the curatorial methodologies used to organize retrospectives for Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Anne Teresa De Keersmaker, and Zhana Ivanova.→
Presented by CCA’s Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice in partnership with the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. This ProSeminar is made possible thanks to generous support from Mary Mocas and Marv Tseu.
Fri, Feb 14, 2020
9:30 am–12 pm
Event closed: seating at capacity
Design director and curator Emmet Byrne talks about his work at the Walker Art Center tying together the worlds of hybrid print/digital design, curatorial publishing, and the museum as platform.→
Presented by CCA’s Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice in partnership with MFA Design. This ProSeminar is made possible thanks to generous support from Mary Mocas and Marv Tseu.
Tue, Feb 11, 2020
3:30–5:30 pm
Free and open to the public
Students, faculty, and nearby arts professionals are encouraged to attend.
New Research Forum marks a moment in the curriculum when second-year graduate students present their research in a public forum for feedback and critical reflection on the progress toward satisfying the thesis requirement in CCA’s Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice.→
Presented by CCA’s Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice
Thu, Nov 14, 2019
3–6 pm
Event closed: seating at capacity
Curator and writer Sarah Rifky leads a ProSeminar reflecting on her experiences co-founding and running state-independent art initiatives in Cairo and Alexandria.→
Presented by CCA’s Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice. This ProSeminar is made possible thanks to generous support from Mary Mocas and Marv Tseu.
Thu, Oct 24, 2019
6–7:30 pm
Graphic designer and curator Na Kim talks about her responsibilities for concept and design of the esteemed GRAPHIC magazine within the framework of documenting and archiving. She will also reflect on her monograph SET and the overlapping interplay between the spatial realities of architecture and the two-dimensional book form.→
Presented by CCA’s Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice in partnership with MFA Design and Undergraduate Graphic Design
Thu, Sep 26, 2019
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
Internationally renowned curator and professor of contemporary art talks about her curatorial work as Founding Director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore and the vital role of small-scale arts institutions in Southeast Asia.→
Presented by CCA’s Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice in partnership with CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. This ProSeminar is made possible thanks to generous support from Mary Mocas and Marv Tseu.
Jun 3–Aug 10, 2019
(free and open to the public)
These readings provide an opportunity to learn about and explore varied perspectives on arts education and the changing role of the artist and curator in society today.→
Wed, May 15, 2019
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
Berlin-based artist, writer and archivist Scott Holmquist presents chronic freedom, the lead volume in a series of five hand-made artist books that portray a macroscopic history of the back-to-land and marijuana culture in Southern Humboldt County, California, from the late 1960s to 2010.→
Thu, Apr 25, 2019
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
Artist and writer Allan deSouza speaks with James Voorhies, CCA Chair of the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice, about his recent publication How Art Can Be Thought: A Handbook for Change, which examines the popular terminology through which art is discussed, valued, and taught.→
Sat, Apr 20, 2019
12–2 pm
(free and open to the public)
Students of the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice at CCA present a public panel discussion examining the roles and responsibilities of curators in building communities and audiences. Panelists Deena Chalabi, Daniela Lieja Quinatar, Lian Ladia, and Megan Steinman will address how curators cultivate and incorporate the voices of a community in their practice, how new communities are created through commissioned art initiatives, and what it means to engage various kinds of communities as an institution.→
Wed, Apr 17, 2019
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
On the occasion of the digital release of the full run Design Book Review, Mimi Zeiger will join founding publishers and editors, Elizabeth Snowden and John Parman, editors Barry Katz and William Littman, and contributor Margaret Crawford to discuss the legacy of Design Book Review and explore the present state and future prospects of design history, theory, and criticism.→
Tue, Apr 16, 2019
10–11:30 am
(free and open to the public)
Nancy Lim, Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA, talks about her curatorial practice including a look at recent and forthcoming exhibitions.→
Thu, Apr 4, 2019
6:30–8:30 pm
Off-site: Wattis Institute
(free and open to the public)
To Know Herself is curated by Yomna Osman, the second-year student in CCA’s Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice. To Know Herself explores the lesbian bar as a place for social and political change.→
Wed, Apr 3, 2019
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
Swedish curator and writer Maria Lind speaks about her curatorial practice, specifically her experience engaging and building diverse audiences at Tensta konsthall in Stockholm where she served as director since 2011 to 2018.→
Apr 3–30, 2019
(free and open to the public)
What does it mean to practice support? How can collective strategies be used to create community and thus a support network? How can we as curators and creative practitioners build and implement support structures within institutions? For our eighth Case Studies exhibition, we selected Céline Condorelli’s book Support Structures as the focal point for studying a range of methodologies and analyses of support in the arts.→
Sun, Mar 24, 2019
2–3:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
As YBCA celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, it looks back at the artists and curators who have contributed to its longest-running exhibition, Bay Area Now. The Curatorial Research Bureau hosts a panel of key voices who can speak personally to the triennial’s legacy of resilience, creativity, and connection.→
Wed, Mar 20, 2019
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
American artist and designer Barbara Stauffacher Solomon talks with Vee Moran, co-publisher of Owl Cave Books, and James Voorhies, CCA Chair of the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice, about her wide-ranging installation practice and her new books published by San Francisco-based Owl Cave.→
Thu, Mar 14, 2019
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
Art critic and poet Frances Richard talks with James Voorhies, CCA Chair of the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice, about her new book, Gordon Matta-Clark: Physical Poetics.→
Tue, Mar 12, 2019
10–11:30 am
(free and open to the public)
David Evans Frantz, Associate Curator at the Palm Springs Art Museum, discusses his current projects and the cultural landscape of Southern California.→
Fri, Mar 8, 2019
9–10:30 am
(by invitation)
Designers Shannon Harvey and Adam Michaels, founders of IN-FO.CO and Inventory Press, speak with students, faculty, and invited guests about their design and publication practices in an intimate forum follow-up to their public presentation at CCA on March 7.→
Thu, Mar 7, 2019
6–7:30 pm
Off-site: California College of the Arts
(free and open to the public)
Los Angeles-based designers Shannon Harvey and Adam Michaels, founders of IN-FO.CO and Inventory Press, talk about their design and publishing practices.→
Mar 5–29, 2019
(free and open to the public)
Our seventh Case Studies uses this 2018 anthology of (and designed by) the Dutch collective Metahaven to further our explorations into experimental design practices.→
Thu, Feb 28, 2019
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
American artist Josiah McElheny talks about a selection of books produced as essential components of his practice, emphasizing the important role of printed matter, art history and the book form in his art and research.→
Wed, Feb 20, 2019
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
Art Historian Dore Bowen and Curators Constance Lewallen and Ted Mann speak about their new book Bruce Nauman: Spatial Encounters, the first publication to solely take up Nauman’s corridors and architectural installations.→
Thu, Feb 7, 2019
6–8:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
Filmmaker Giorgio Angelini introduces and screens his documentary Owned, A Tale of Two Americas, a fever dream vision into the dark history behind the US housing economy. This event is organized in partnership with CCA Architecture Division.→
Wed, Feb 6, 2019
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
Swiss designer Julia Born presents a selection of her publications and exhibitions focusing on how she uses design to propose new narratives and ways of reading. This event is organized in partnership with CCA MFA Design and swissnex San Francisco, with support from Pro Helvetia.→
Feb 5–28, 2019
(free and open to the public)
Our sixth Case Studies exhibition uses Laurel Doody Library Supply as a starting point to consider distribution as a form of critical practice.→
Thu, Jan 31, 2019
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
Switzerland-based, French curator and writer Yann Chateigné speaks about research on a forthcoming project that draws connections between 1960s counterculture experiments in the Bay Area, early European avant-gardes, and contemporary Swiss artists and musicians. This event is organized in partnership with swissnex San Francisco, with support from Pro Helvetia.→
Jan 8–31, 2019
(free and open to the public)
Our fifth Case Studies exhibition uses the expanded reprint of the 1970 publication Blueprint for Counter Education by sociologist Maurice Stein and his collaborator Larry Miller as a launching point for a month-long look at alternative pedagogical models.→
Wed, Dec 19, 2018
12–4 pm
(free and open to the public)
The CRB is the hub of learning for the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice at California College of the Arts. Visit the CRB today to learn more about the program, check out the books, and meet James Voorhies, CRB’s Director and Chair of the program.→
Thu, Dec 13, 2018
4–6 pm
(free and open to the public)
In anticipation of her forthcoming book Here Is Where I Walk: Episodes from a Life in the Forest, Leslie Carol Roberts reads from her book, discusses her methodologies and then leads guests out into the the Yerba Buena Gardens to talk about the history and atmosphere this urban ecology.→
Dec 3–21, 2018
(free and open to the public)
Our fourth Case Studies exhibition uses the 2003 publication Corporate Mentality, edited by John Kelsey and Aleksandra Mir, as a launching point. This book documents the emergence of artistic practices that exist within and are occupied by both business and art.→
Wed, Nov 21, 2018
10–11:30 am
(free and open to the public)
Curator and writer Shoghig Halajian will present on the work she has done to foster performative and underexposed modes of expression at the not-for-profit arts organization Human Resources in Los Angeles.→
Tue, Nov 20, 2018
(by invitation)
*Cancelled due to unhealthy air quality.
Rosa Barba speaks with students, faculty, and other invited guests about her practice as an artist and filmmaker in this invited forum as a follow-up to her conversation at The Lab on November 19 (as part of the Experience It series).→
Thu, Nov 8, 2018
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
Between You & Me is a series of dialogic exchanges between artists and their collaborators and peers to materialize the countless conversations, musings, and debates that are often invisible yet play a significant role in the generative space of artmaking.→
Thu, Nov 1, 2018
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
Zoë Ryan in conversation with CCA’s Dean of Design, Helen Maria Nugent, and James Voorhies, CCA’s Chair of the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice.→
Nov 1–30, 2018
(free and open to the public)
Our third Case Studies exhibition uses our current place as a launching point with the help of the photographs of south of market in the book Janet Delaney: South of Market taken between 1978 and 1986.→
Tue, Oct 30, 2018
(by invitation)
Simon Fujiwara speaks with students, faculty, and invited guests about his practice as an artist and filmmaker in this intimate forum as a follow-up to his conversation at The Lab on October 29 (part of the Experience It series).→
Wed, Oct 24, 2018
10–11:30 am
(free and open to the public)
CCA Curatorial Practice alum Amanda Hunt is Director of Education and Public Programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and co-curator of the 2019 Desert X Biennial in Palm Springs. She will discuss her current projects and the cultural landscape of Southern California.→
Thu, Oct 4, 2018
6–7:30 pm
(free and open to the public)
Curator and critic Barbara Pollack speaks about her new book, Brand New Art from China: A Generation on the Rise (I.B. Tauris).→
Oct 2–31, 2018
(free and open to the public)
Our second Case Studies focuses on The Absent Museum: Blueprint for a Museum of Contemporary Art for the Capital of Europe, published in 2017 on the occasion of an exhibition marking the 10th anniversary of WIELS, a contemporary arts center in Brussels.→
Thu, Sep 27, 2018
6–8 pm
(free and open to the public)
Join us in celebrating the opening of the Curatorial Research Bureau!→
Mon, Sep 17, 2018
3–5 pm
Off-site: San Francisco Public Library Facility and Warehouse
(by invitation)
Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol speak about the development of their project at SFMOMA for the purpose of involving students.→
Tue, Sep 11, 2018
(by invitation)
Shahryar Nashat speaks with students, faculty, and other invited guests about his practice in this invited forum.→
Sep 4–30, 2018
(free and open to the public)
Our inaugural Case Studies focuses on Marianne Wex’s ‘Let’s Take Back Our Space’, published in 1979.→