Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning

K. Samantha Sigmon

ssigmon@bates.edu

About

Through curatorial projects, arts writing, and community engagement, K. Samantha Sigmon (she/her) works with intersecting aspects of contemporary art and theory, arts interpretation, cultural and folk histories, and placekeeping and grassroots activism within the built environment. She joined Bates in March 2023 and currently serves on the board at SPACE, a multi-disciplinary art center in Portland, and on the Museum Committee of the College Art Association. At Bates, she loves working deeply with interns on exhibition projects, with faculty on courses related to best museum practices and the changing museum field, and with unique collaborations across campus and into the community to present immersive, engaging, inspiring, and challenging art projects with local and global reach. She believes art is a way to connect through disciplines and is especially interested in craft-related, multi-media, installation, interactive, and site-specific art projects.

Samantha has a Master’s in Architectural History from the University of Virginia, a Master’s in Museum Studies from Syracuse University, and a Bachelor’s in Cultural Anthropology and Literature from the University of Arkansas. Previously, in her hometown of Northwest Arkansas, she was invested in community arts, running a do-it-yourself space and organizing local arts exhibitions while specializing in contemporary art and architecture as an Interpretation Manager at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. At UVA, Samantha was an editor of the student-run publication Lunch, as well as an organizer for Manifest A Collective for Equity in Design, co-president of the University of Virginia Society of Architectural Historians, and Curatorial Research Assistant in University of Virginia Special Collections. She still curates with an emphasis on art that underscores the importance of place and site in our everyday lives.

Select Curatorial Projects:

• Lead Curator at Bates: Contemporary art and rural America, group exhibition, title TBD, October 2024 – March 2025
• Lead Curator at Bates: “Neue Slowenische Kunst | Monumental Spectacular,” April 12-October 5, 2024 2024: https://www.bates.edu/museum/neue-slowenische-kunst-monumental-spectacular/
• Lead Curator at Bates: “Presence is Power: An Evening of Indigenous Short Films,” February 28, 2024: https://www.bates.edu/museum/events/presence-is-power-an-evening-of-indigenous-short-films/
• Freelance Lead curator: “Ozark Home, Beyond the Frame,” Shiloh Museum of Ozark History and The Medium gallery, Springdale, AR, May-December 2023
• Freelance Lead curator: “Intersections: A Month of Art and Performance Supporting Women,” various Northwest AR locations, April 2018
  Interpretation Manager at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art: “Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now,” Fall 2018
• Interpretation Manager at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art: “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power,” Spring 2018
• Interpretation Manager at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art: “Border Cantos: Sight and Sound Explorations from the Mexican/American Border,” Spring 2017
• Organizer as Executive Director of the Fayetteville Underground: “The Queer South,” Fayetteville, AR 2015