Â鶹APP

Grace Aneiza AliÌýis currently the appointed Curator for the Engine for Art, Democracy, and Justice at Â鶹APP University where she has organizedÌýSomewhere We Are Human, a year-long series of exhibitions and public programs looking at the city of Nashville and the American South through a lens of migration, exploring the ways immigrant communities have shaped the region’s history and envision its future through art and activism.

Ali is a Guyanese-born curator and assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History and affiliated faculty in the Native American and Indigenous Studies Center at Florida State University. She is a 2024 recipient of the University Provost Award for Inclusive Teaching. As a curator-scholar of contemporary art of the Global South, her curatorial research practice examines the conceptual links and slippages at the nexus of art and migration.

She is a current Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow at The Huntington Library and Museum in Los Angeles, California and a Stuart A. Rose Library Fellow at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of the College Art Association’sÌýArt Journal OpenÌýand a member of the international board of advisors forÌýthe Paul Mellon Centre’sÌýBritish Art StudiesÌýJournal.

Ali also specializes in art of the Caribbean Diaspora with particular attention to her homeland Guyana. HerÌýÌýfocuses on courses on curatorial practice, curatorial activism, art and migration, arts activism, art and social change, global contemporary art, and art of the Caribbean Diaspora.

Ali’s bookÌýÌýexplores the art and migration narratives of women of Guyanese heritage. Her essays on contemporary art have been published inÌýArts,ÌýAsian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas, Wasafiri, Transition Magazine (Harvard University), Small Axe,ÌýandÌýNueva Luz Photographic Journal,Ìýamong others.

Prior to joining FSU, she taught in theÌýprogram as aÌýÌýand Assistant Professor in theÌýÌýat the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University (NYU), and also served as affiliated faculty with the Asian/Pacific/American Institute. She finished a tenure as Curator-at-Large for theÌýÌý(CCCADI) in New York where she developed the organization’s firstÌýCuratorial Fellowship in Afro-Caribbean ArtÌýand launched a thriving public program series,ÌýCurators in Conversation,Ìýgathering global curators and artists to discuss urgent issues of equity and inclusion affecting museums and the curatorial field.Ìý For her work with CCCADI, she was selected forÌýÌýrecognizing those “contributing to the cultural conversation in a pointed way—and moving the conversation forward.â€�

She is the recipient of the following fellowships and awards that have generously supported her curatorial projects, research, and scholarship: NYU Provost Fellowship, Fulbright Fellowship, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Curatorial Fellowship, Ronald E. McNair Scholar, NYU Henry M. MacCracken Fellowship, NYU Dean’s Faculty Grant, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art Grant. She is an alumni of theÌýÌýÌýand a member ofÌýÌýalumni and theÌý.

She is founder and curator ofÌý, an online platform for contemporary arts and culture of Guyana and founder and editorial director ofÌýÌý— an award-winning nonprofit arts journalism initiative reporting on the intersection of art and activism.ÌýHer curatorial projects and scholarship have been featured inÌýThe New York Times,ÌýThe Washington Post,ÌýHyperallergic,ÌýArtNews,ÌýWasafiri,ÌýContemporary &,ÌýMs. MagazineÌýandÌýGOOD Magazine, among others.

Ali currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the not-profit arts organization,Ìý, which supports artists and curators in the 21st century presenting art in direct response to pressing global issues and on the Academic Advisory Board forÌý, a peer-reviewed publication centering the study of indentureship and its importance to world history. She is a proud mentor forÌý, a leader in arts education, writing and mentoring for underserved and immigrant girls in New York City.ÌýShe has been named aÌýÌýand has been an invited speaker to its Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. She has been named aÌýÌýan organization led by Indo-Caribbean women and committed to creating a safe and equitable society for women and girls.

She earned a M.A. in Africana Studies from New York University and a B.A. in English Literature with a concentration in African Diaspora Literature and a Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she graduatedÌýmagna cum laude.

Ali migrated from Guyana to the United States with her family when she was fourteen years old.