Summer Think Tank

For its third iteration, the 2025 Summer Think Tank explores the role of performance art within our understanding and stewardship of American art at large. Taking a wide view of our contemporary arts ecology, the think tank invites participants to contemplate performance in relation to practices of archiving, documentation, exhibition making, collecting, and pedagogy as they take place within the museums, universities, galleries, and other alternative spaces.

Six of the leading curators, artists, and scholars working in performance have been invited to serve as guest curators. Each curator is assigned a week of the think tank and is responsible for assembling a cohort of interlocutors and cultivating a specific prompt or question to guide their conversations.

For the first time since its inception, the 2025 Summer Think Tank also features a series of public programs, consisting of live performances, film screenings, and workshops developed and presented by the participants, which provides the Colby Museum’s audiences with a unique opportunity to learn from the think tank as it’s happening.

Details on Summer Think Tank 2025.

In summer 2024, the Lunder Institute brought together artists, curators, writers, performers, culture bearers, and other scholars to center Indigenous artists and art histories, resurgent practices, and the building of sovereign archives and futures. The Summer Think Tank ________ - American 2024 hosted conversations and documented new histories of the ways Indigenous practitioners remake, refuse, and reimagine new worlds and narratives.

The Lunder Institute’s first-ever Summer Think Tank gathered more than thirty thought leaders across disciplines to engage in conversation about urgent questions and topics relevant to American art, with particular attention to the ways in which blackness and the Black experience are central to American art, its history, and its future. Over the course of ten weeks, participants convened on-site to address the intersection of creative practice and American identity; dismantling racism in institutions; archiving Black art; and Black art history, performance art, feminisms, and aesthetics.

Guest Curators  
Dell Marie Hamilton, artist, writer, curator; interim director of the Cooper Gallery at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research

Hannah Haynes, professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, MCLA; 2025–26 LIAA Fellow

Cynthia Post Hunt, artist and curator of artists-in-residence and performance, Crystal Bridges & the Momentary

Kristin Juarez, PhD, senior research specialist, Getty Research Institute

Ed Patuto, director for audience engagement, The Broad Museum

David Thomson, interdisciplinary performing artist

Limor Tomer, vice president of programming and production, Segerstrom Center for the Arts  

Fellows  
Marilyn Arsem, artist

Tiffany E. Barber, assistant professor of African American Art, UCLA

Sidra Bell, artist

John Bordel, artist liaison, Performance Art Museum

AB Brown, assistant professor, Performance, Theater and Dance, Colby College

The Last Physician of Images (Ernest A. Bryant III), artist and critic; 2025-26 LIAA Fellow 

Rashida Bumbray, curator and choreographer

Brad Burgess, artist and artistic director, The Living Theatre

Sandra L. Burton, chair of dance department, Williams College

Rachel Chanoff, founding director, The Office

Elizabeth Cline, executive director, Wild Up

Angela Counts, playwright and filmmaker

Helga Davis, artist

LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, poet and artist

Rosalie Doubal, senior curator, international art (Performance & Participation), Tate Modern

Kristy Edmunds, director, MASS MoCA

Zachary Fabri, artist

Rachel Fine, executive director, Yale Schwarzman Center

Peggy Fogelman, director, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Danielle Forest, director, Pace Gallery

Marjani Forté-Saunders, choregrapher

Martin Gonzales, artist

Jonathan González, artist

Rujeko Hockley, associate curator, Whitney Museum of American Art

Avery Willis Hoffman, founder & artistic director of Avery Productions

Judy Hussie-Taylor, executive director & chief curator, Danspace Project

Sarah Jones, Lulu C. and Anthony W. Wang Head of Live Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Darin Klein, associate director of events and programs, The Broad

Autumn Knight, artist

Bronwyn Lace, artist and co-founder, The Centre for the Less Good Idea

Teresa McKinney, Diamond Family Director of the Arts, Colby College

Edgar Miramontes, executive and artistic director, Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA

Seta Morton, program director & associate curator, Danspace Project

Dorothy Moss, founding director, The Hung Liu Estate

Jennifer Harrison Newman, associate artistic director, Yale Schwarzman Center

Valerie Cassel Oliver, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Cori Olinghouse, artist, archivist, and curator

taisha paggett, artist and choreographer

Will Rawls, artist, choreographer, and associate professor of dance, UCLA

Guy Robertson, curator and co-director, Mahler & LeWitt Studios

Lauren Rosati, associate curator, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Legacy Russell, executive director & chief curator, The Kitchen; 2024-25 LIAA Fellow

Russell Salmon, director of public programming, Hauser & Wirth

Gwynn Shanks, assistant professor, Performance, Theater and Dance, Colby College

Kyera Singleton, executive director, The Royall House and Slave Quarters

Kwabena Slaughter, producer, artist, and PhD candidate at George Washington University

Luke Stewart, artist

Jackie Terrassa, Carolyn Muzzy Director, Colby College Museum of Art

Julie Tolentino, artist 

Xavier Tavera, artist

Nat Trotman, curator of performance and media, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Masha Turchinsky, director, Hudson River Museum

Samuel Vasquez, director, Performance Art Museum

Anna Martine Whitehead, artist and writer

Tara Aisha Willis, curator, writer, and artist

Jordan Abel, writer and Professor of English and Film Studies, University of Alberta (Nisga’a)  

Lazaro Arvizu Jr., artist, educator, and musician (Gabrielino/Tongva)

Maya Tihtiyas Attean, artist (Wabanaki)

Kalyn Barnoski, artist, musician, Assistant Curator of Native Art, Philbrook Museum of Art (Cherokee Nation / Muscogee Creek descent)

Riel Bellow, artist and writer (Métis)

edxi betts, artist and organizer (Blackfoot)

Sarah Biscarra Dilley, artist and writer (yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini)

Susan Blight, artist (Anishinaabe, Couchiching First Nation)

Clementine Bordeaux, Assistant Professor of the History of Art and Visual Culture, UC Santa Barbara (Sičáŋǧu Lakótapi (Rosebud Sioux Tribe))

mary v. bordeaux, curator, Co-Director and Co-Founder, Racing Magpie (Sicangu/Oglala Lakota)

Sháńdíín Brown, curator and PhD Student of History of Art, Yale University (Diné)

Jeremy Dennis, photographer (Shinnecock Indian Nation)

Oscar Diaz, artist

Demian DinéYazhi’, artist (Diné)

Keisha Erwin, artist (Nîhithaw)

Noelle Garcia, artist and educator (Klamath/Modoc/Paiute)

Haley Greenfeather English, artist and educator (Ojibwe)

Hapistinna Graci Horne, artist (Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and Hunkpapa Lakota/Dakota)

Katie Janss, activist and community developer

Jared Lank, artist and filmmaker (Mi’kmaq)

Lehuauakea, artist (Kanaka Maoli)

Juan Lucero, curator and consultant (Isleta Pueblo)

Leah Mata-Fragua, artist and educator (yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini (Northern Chumash))

America Meredith, artist (Cherokee Nation)

Ramey Mize, Associate Curator of American Art, Portland Museum of Art

Alivia Moore, community organizer (Penobscot)

Michael Namingha , artist

Cecily Nicholson, poet, curator, and arts administrator

SJ Norman, artist, writer, and curator

Natani Notah, artist (Diné)

Mali Obomsawin, musician and composer (Odanak First Nation)

Ed Patuto, Director for Audience Engagement, The Broad Museum

Katherine Paul, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (Swinomish/Iñupiaq)

Ann Pollard Ranco, writer and artist (Penobscot)

Emma Robbins, artist and activist (Diné)

Dylan Robinson, artist and Associate Professor of Music, University of British Columbia (xwélmexw (Stó:lō/Skwah))

fabian romero, Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies, The Ohio State University (P’urhepécha)

Grace Rosario Perkins, artist (Diné)

Lynn Daphne Rudolph, musician (Khoi)

Lokotah Sanborn, artist and filmmaker (Penobscot)

Theresa Secord, traditional basketmaker and founder of Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (Penobscot)

Pınar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd, artist (Wanka)

Sarah Sockbeson, artist and basketmaker (Penobscot)

Anna Tsouhlarakis, artist (Navajo/Creek)

Arielle Twist, artist and sex educator (Nehiyaw)

Marina Tyquiengco, Ellyn McColgan Assistant Curator of Native American Art, MFA Boston (Chamoru)

KJ Abudu, curator, writer, and critic

Tiffany E. Barber, scholar, curator, critic

Jordan Benissan, owner, Me Lon Togo, Rockland, Maine

Jordia Benjamin, deputy director, Indigo Arts Alliance

Joy Bivins, director, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Diedrick Brackens, artist

Micha Broadnax, archivist

Bridget R. Cooks, scholar and curator of American art

Robert Cozzolino, curator

Dominique Duroseau, performance artist

Ayana Evans, performance artist

Josh T Franco, artist and art historian

Genevieve Gaignard, artist

Dell Marie Hamilton, artist, writer, curator; interim director of the Cooper Gallery at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research  

Heather Hart, artist

Abram Jackson, director of interpretation, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Eleanor Kipping, performance artist

M. Lamar, performance artist

Tsedaye Makonnen, performance artist

Dave Mallari, owner, Sinful Kitchen, Portland, Maine

Devin Malone, director of public programs and community engagement, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco

Denise Markonish, chief curator at MASS MoCA

Daniel Minter, co-founder, artist director, Indigo Arts Alliance

Marcia Minter, co-founder, chief officer of strategic growth and innovation, Indigo Arts Alliance

Kelli Morgan, curator, educator, and social justice activist

Ashley Page, artist and studio and program manager, Indigo Arts Alliance

January Parkos Arnall, curator, performance and public practice, MCA Chicago

Jordan Kendall Parks, artist

Ed Patuto, director of audience engagement, the Broad, Los Angeles

Verónica A. Pérez, artist and administrative assistant, Indigo Arts Alliance

Louis Pickens, owner, Black Betty’s Bistro, Portland, Maine

Veronica Pounds, graphic designer

Kenny Rivero, artist

Xaviera Simmons, artist

Delphine Sims, assistant curator of photography, SFMOMA

Nyugen E. Smith, performance artist

TK Smith, curator, writer, and cultural historian

Papay Solomon, artist

Limor Tomer, vice president of programming and production, Segerstrom Center for the Arts  

Jina Valentine, visual artist and educator

Liat Yossifor, artist