KANSAS CITY, MO, AUGUST 23, 2023: After a nationwide search throughout the summer of 2023, Charlotte Street is pleased to announce the organization’s new Curatorial Fellow, Yashi Davalos. Davalos, an independent curator previously based in New Orleans, LA, begins her two-year fellowship in late August 2023 as a full-time staff member at Charlotte Street.
Working with emerging and contemporary artists in project spaces such as The Front Gallery in New Orleans, Davalos’ curatorial vision brings together artists from multiple regions and cultural identities through innovative exhibitions and programming.
“Davalos has a refreshing curatorial vision full of burgeoning ideas, grounded in avid research and a commitment to artists. I’m sure her sharp eye and critical thinking will foster interesting dialogue in the Kansas City community,” says Amy Kligman, Executive/Artistic Director of Charlotte Street.
Over the course of the two-year fellowship, Davalos will curate 3-4 exhibitions and develop new programming at Charlotte Street as the organization’s critical new voice. Already familiar with Kansas City through a recent collaboration between The Front and Plug Gallery, Davalos hopes to continue generating exciting opportunities for artists to collaborate across multiple regions.
“My objective as the new Charlotte Street Curatorial Fellow is to connect Kansas City artists to a greater network of artists, collectors, and institutions while exploring conversations of agency that reflect true engagement with artistic practice,” says Davalos. “I’m very excited to explore interactive exhibition making, workshops, programming, and engaging in arts writing in this new community.”
In 2020, Charlotte Street expanded its celebrated curator-in-residence position, formerly a part-time independent contractor role, to a full-time Curatorial Fellow staff position. Through this program, Charlotte Street selects an emerging curator gaining national prominence to come to Kansas City for a two-year fellowship to create original exhibitions, carry out studio visits, and develop public programs and productions that help deepen audience engagement.
To schedule an interview with Davalos, or for other press inquiries, please reach out to Marketing + Communications Manager Hope-Lian Vinson at [email protected].
ABOUT YASHI DAVALOS
Yashi Davalos (Yashira Lopez Davalos) b. 1995, is an emerging artist and curator. Her upbringing as an Afro Latinx Atlanta native transcends her relationship between the south and global south in her worldview of humanity vs. regional identity. Yashi’s objective as a curator is to build conversations of culture around perceiving hyper-capitalist focus on tokenism vs. non-monolithic aspects of identity. Her past curations include Echolocation: Industrialized Persona, Past Present and Afro-Futurism at The Front Gallery. Her art has also been exhibited throughout New Orleans, at Plug Gallery (Kansas City, MO), Mint Gallery ATL (Atlanta, GA), and in partnership with Elevate ATL for Atlanta Art Week.
ABOUT CHARLOTTE STREET
Charlotte Street centers Kansas City’s most forward-thinking visual artists, writers, and performers acting as the primary incubator, provocateur, and connector for the region’s contemporary arts community, and its leading advocate on the national stage. Since 1997, Charlotte Street has distributed over $2 million in awards and grants to artists and their innovative projects, and connected individual artists to each other and to the greater Kansas City community.
View press release as PDF HERE.
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