Mia Locks
{{short description|American independent curator and writer}}
Mia Locks is a contemporary art curator and museum leader.
Career
=Professional Experience=
Mia Locks is an independent curator and writer based in Los Angeles.{{cn|date=November 2022}} She co-founded and leads Museums Moving Forward, a data-driven research initiative to support equity in the art museum sector, funded by Ford Foundation{{Cite web |title=Museums Moving Forward, Inc. Archives |url=https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grantee/museums-moving-forward-inc/ |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=Ford Foundation |language=en-US}} and Mellon Foundation.{{Cite web |title=Mellon Foundation |url=https://www.mellon.org/grant-details/museums-moving-forward-20450758 |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=www.mellon.org |language=en}}{{cn|date=November 2022}} She serves on the board of Clockshop, an arts organization in Los Angeles. She is also an editorial advisor on the podcasts "Hope & Dread: The Tectonic Shifts of Power in Art."{{cite web | url=https://www.schwartzmanand.com/art-and-posts/category/Hope%2FDread | title=Hope/Dread — All Art& Posts }} " and The Art World: What If...?!"The Art World: What If...?! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-world-what-if/id1203133627
Locks' recent exhibitions include The Deep West Assembly Cauleen Smith (2024) at Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo and Miranda July: New Society (2024) at Fondazione Prada in Milan. Previously, Locks worked as a curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and MoMA PS1, New York.{{Cite web |title= |url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/mia-locks-279319225/}}{{cn|date=November 2022}} Most recently, she was Senior Curator and Head of New Initiatives at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.{{Cite web |last=Finkel |first=Jori |date=May 8, 2019 |title="MOCA in Los Angeles Appoints Mia Locks as Senior Curator" |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/arts/design/moca-mia-locks-senior-curator.html |website=New York Times}}{{cn|date=November 2022}} Prior to MOCA, Locks was co-curator of the 2017 Whitney Biennial, with Christopher Y. Lew.{{cite web |last1=Russeth |first1=Andrew |title=Christopher Lew and Mia Locks Will Organize the 2017 Whitney Biennial |url=http://www.artnews.com/2015/11/04/christopher-lew-and-mia-locks-will-organize-the-2017-whitney-biennial/ |website=ARTnews |date=4 November 2015}} At MoMA PS1, she organized exhibitions including Math Bass: Off the Clock (2015); IM Heung-soon: Reincarnation (2015); Samara Golden: The Flat Side of the Knife (2014); and The Little Things Could Be Dearer (2014).{{cite web |title=The Whitney Announces Curators for 2017 Biennial |url=https://whitney.org/2017-biennial-curators |website=whitney.org |language=en}} She also co-curated Greater New York (2015), with Douglas Crimp, Peter Eleey, and Thomas J. Lax.{{cite web |title=MoMA PS1: Exhibitions: Greater New York |url=https://momaps1.org/exhibitions/view/403 |website=momaps1.org}} As an independent curator, she organized Ulrike Müller: or both (2019) at Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia, and Cruising the Archive: Queer Art and Culture in Los Angeles, 1945–1980 (2011), with David Evans Frantz, at the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles, as part of the Getty’s inaugural Pacific Standard Time initiative.{{cite web |title=Cruising the Archive: Queer Art and Culture in Los Angeles, 1945-1980 {{!}} ONE Archives |url=https://one.usc.edu/exhibition/cruising-archive-queer-art-and-culture-los-angeles-1945-1980 |website=one.usc.edu}}
=Writing and Teaching=
Lock's writing has appeared in Artnet, Mousse, Afterall, Art Journal, and several exhibition catalogues including texts on artists such as Miranda July, Math Bass, Samara Golden, Shara Hughes, William Pope.L, and Carrie Moyer.Locks, Mia. "8 Things You Can Do Right Now to Create Change in Your Museum Workplace" https://news.artnet.com/art-world/8-things-you-can-do-right-now-to-create-change-in-your-museum-workplace-2229355https://www.miandn.com/attachment/en/63936142fcaaf75aef06bd82/Press/58a4b1060ed85044286b538a{{cite web |last1=Locks |first1=Mia |title='suddenly: where we live now' at the Pomona College Museum of Art • Online • Afterall |url=https://www.afterall.org/online/suddenly.where.we.live.now.at.the.pomona.college.museum.of.art#.XFOKU89Kjyg |website=www.afterall.org}}"The Body is a Location: Math Bass in Conversation with Mia Locks." https://artjournal.collegeart.org/?p=6704 She edited the first monograph of Samara Golden's work, The Flat Side of the Knife, published by MoMA PS1 in 2014.{{cite web |title=Samara Golden Art Monographs and Museum Exhibition Catalogs |url=http://www.artbook.com/catalog--art--monographs--golden--samara.html |website=www.artbook.com}} She served on the faculty of the M.A. program in Curatorial Practice at the School of Visual Arts, New York from 2017-2019.{{cite web |title=Call for applications: MA Curatorial Practice - Announcements - Art & Education |url=https://www.artandeducation.net/announcements/213108/call-for-applications-ma-curatorial-practice |website=www.artandeducation.net |language=en}}
=Education=
Locks received a BA from Brown University and an MA from the University of Southern California (USC). She was a 2018 fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership in New York City.{{Cite web |title=Mia Locks - CCL Class of 2018 |url=https://www.curatorialleadership.org/participants/ccl-program/mia-locks/ |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=Center for Curatorial Leadership |language=en}}{{cn|date=November 2022}}
References
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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Brown University alumni
Category:University of Southern California alumni
Category:School of Visual Arts faculty
Category:American art curators
Category:American women curators
Category:American women writers
Category:People associated with the Whitney Museum of American Art