Roundtable Discussion

Roundtable discussion panelist Claudia E. Zapata will speak about their curatorial practice working across the nation, including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and at community-centered art spaces in Texas. In July 2023, they will begin their newest position as the Blanton Museum of Art’s first curator of Latino art.

Claudia earned their Ph.D. in Art History at Southern Methodist University’s RASC/a: Rhetorics of Art, Space and Culture program and a B.A. and M.A. in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in Maya art from the Classic period (250-900 CE) and Chicano art. Zapata was previously the Curator of Exhibitions and Programs at the Mexic-Arte Museum, where they curated several exhibitions, including A Viva Voz: Carmen Lomas Garza (2009), Sam Coronado: A Retrospective (2011), and Fantastic & Grotesque: José Clemente Orozco in Print (2014). From 2018-2022, Claudia was a Curatorial Assistant of Latinx art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, working on the award-winning exhibition ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965-Now. In 2022-23, Zapata served as a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA, where their current research analyzes Chicanx and Latine/x creators in Web3.