Daisy Nam, California College of the Arts (CCA) Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art director and curator, will elucidate the process of selecting, organizing, and presenting art in different places and spaces in a free public lecture on 10 September at 3 p.m.

The talk, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, will walk the participants through Nam’s strategies in developing exhibitions, commissions and teaching programs, as well as fundraising and donor cultivation. It will provide a look at her work at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, a non-profit venue and research institute which centers on diverse perspectives, novel and experimental approaches of emerging, established and under-recognized artists.

The dialogue will delve into her experience as director and curator of Ballroom Marfa in Texas, a contemporary art space dedicated to supporting artists, musicians, and visionary thinkers across disciplines through residencies, commissions, exhibitions, performances, and educational activities. She will likewise talk about her term as assistant director of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she managed the administration and organized events, exhibitions, and publications dedicated in line with her mission to build a vibrant community around contemporary art.

Nam holds a master’s degree in Curatorial and Critical Studies from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in Art History and Cinema Studies from New York University. She has produced seven seasons of talks, screenings, performances, and workshops as the assistant director of public programs at the School of the Arts of Columbia University in New York. Her residencies and fellowships include being the Marcia Tucker Senior Research Fellow at the New Museum, New York (2020); Bellas Artes in Bataan, Philippines (2020); Surf Point in York, Maine (2019); and Gwangju Biennale Foundation, Korea (2018). She has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, Rhode Island, and lectured at Lesley University, Northeastern University, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University, all in Massachusetts, and the School of Visual Arts in New York as a visiting critic. She co-edited the publication Best! Letters from Asian Americans in the arts with Paper Monument in 2021.

The talk is free and open to the public. It will be conducted at the 8th Floor Learning Commons of the DLS-CSB Design + Arts Campus, 950 Pablo Ocampo Street, Malate, Manila. Interested participants may register through tinyurl.com/MCADDaisyNam.