IRENE SHUM, CURATOR / ART & ARCHITECTURE

"Art is the idea expressed in sensuous form." (G.W.F.Hegel)

Curator Irene Mei Zhi Shum is a highly regarded arts leader and strategist, known for building the operational & programming capacity of arts organizations, organizing ambitious exhibition projects, and championing the artists and designers with whom she works.  She is skilled at creating and aligning programming with new initiatives and long-term objectives. Her curatorial practice explores the intersection of art and architecture and specializes in new commissions.

Past positions that she has held include Executive Director of Art in General (2020), Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Menil Collection (2018-2020), and inaugural Curator and Collections Manager of the Glass House (2007-2018), a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  She also worked at The Museum of Modern Art (2003-05), National University of Singapore (2003), Whitney Museum of American Art (1996), and New Museum of Contemporary Art (1994-95).  In 2021, she founded the curatorial consultancy, New Territories Art.

At the Glass House, Shum outlined the curatorial goals for the site’s initial 10-year plan strategic plan.  During her tenure, she shaped the site’s collections and implemented the site’s arts initiative, introducing exhibitions, music and dance performances. Notably, she organized and secured funding for the large-scale, site-specific exhibitions Fujiko Nakaya: Veil (2014) and Yayoi Kusama: Narcissus Garden (2016), as well as a highly acclaimed sound performance by composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and visual artist and musician Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto), that was recorded and released as Glass (Noton, 2018). 

Both the Menil and Art in General greatly impressed upon her the importance of community.  At the Menil, in addition to her curatorial responsibilities, she was active in community service, in the tradition of Dominique de Menil who believed that embedded within the aesthetic experience is a call to social justice and activism.  She served on review panels and juries for Artadia, Houston Arts Alliance, Galveston Artists Residency, Houston Arts Partners, and the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. She was also a board member of the Rice Design Alliance.

In February 2020, she was appointed the Executive Director of Art in General, a beloved alternative arts space in New York City founded in 1981 by artists, but in March 2020, the pandemic closed nonessential businesses indefinitely.  Without an endowment or cash reserve, Art in General was exceptionally susceptible to the financial constriction of COVID-19, and by September, she and the board determined the organization was no longer financially viable.  She devised a plan of action to ensure an orderly closure, including the communications strategy and closing programs, to remain active and maintain integrity during the dissolution.  She serviced all debts, prioritizing artists and small vendors; and secured the organization’s legacy by donating its archives and publications to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, New York University Special Collections - Fales Library, and the Art Resources Transfer.  Leading through adversity tested her mettle and strengthened her commitment to the arts and culture.

Shum holds a Master’s in Architecture from Yale University; a certificate of architecture from the École des Beaux-Arts of the Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau, where she was awarded the Prix de Ville de Fontainebleau; and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture and Art History from Barnard College, Columbia University. She has worked with emerging and mid career artists, such as Tauba Auerbach, E.V. Day, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and Vincent Valdez; as well as legendary masters, including Frank Stella, Julian Schnabel, and Bruce Nauman. Her projects have been published in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Artforum, Galerie, Artnet, Cultured, Wallpaper, Metropolis, Architecture, Architectural Review, World Architecture, Interior Design, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, W, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, among others. 

Shum is passionate about the arts, and it is her deeply held conviction that art enriches our lives, providing moments of refuge, reflection, insight, wonder, and connection. Her work is guided by the simple principle that she learned early in her career from Marcia Tucker, the founding director of the New Museum:

“The artist comes first.”