Curator, programmer and researcher Viviana to head up Peterborough arts organisation Metal
Peterborough arts organisation Metal has appointed the hugely experienced Viviana Checchia as its new director.
Before joining Metal, Viviana was the Director of Void Art Centre in Derry, where she and the Void team created a living practice of Social Permaculture.
Viviana is a curator, programmer, and researcher active internationally, and also the Co-Director of ‘Vessel’, an international curatorial platform based in Puglia, South of Italy, for the support of social, cultural, and economic development through contemporary art.
“I am so excited to be joining Metal in Peterborough & Cambridgeshire! I feel like I have been waiting for this moment for more than a decade: the opportunity to lead an organisation for which social engagement is the core mission,” said Viviana.
“I am also super-happy to join a great creative team working across the three Metal locations and look forward very much to learning more about what's been done and what we might do now for the social impact of art.
"I see this as an opportunity to test my citizen-led methodologies further and to implement my curatorial social-permaculture approach at Metal.”
Viviana has held several other posts including Residency Curator at Delfina Foundation, London, Senior Lecturer on the MFA at HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg and Public Engagement Curator at the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow. As well as this, Viviana has produced and contributed to a range of international projects, including the Young Artist of the Year Award, Ramallah and the 4th Athens Biennale.
She has lectured on curatorial studies and contemporary art practice at amongst others: British School at Rome; the Centre for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York; the ‘Social Practice and the Creative Environment’ Masters programme at Limerick Institute of Technology; the International Academy of Art Palestine, Ramallah.
With Anna Santomauro, she received the 2013 ICI/Dedalus Research Award for research into the legacy of socially-engaged art practice in the U.S., and in 2016 was awarded the Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory
Laureate’s choice for her contributions to the comprehension of and international interest in Eastern European art. Viviana holds a PhD from Loughborough University that focused on alternative Mediterranean curatorial practices. She currently serves as a trustee of cultural organisation, Timespan, Helmsdale, Scotland.
"We can't wait to welcome Viviana to Metal Peterborough. We look forward to having someone with such a strong commitment to socially-engaged art practice and wealth of experience collaborating with different people,
groups, and organisations leading our work here, across the region, and beyond,” commented Susie Thornberry, Artistic Director and CEO, Metal.
Metal’s programmes inspire positive change through art and creativity in radical, collaborative and interesting ways. Their work is underpinned by three themes: community and connection; climate and nature; and social
justice.
From involving local people in creative decision making in Peterborough, Southend and Liverpool, and working with artists to disrupt loneliness across the UK, to reimagining what a true welcome really is, and challenging power through structural change, Metal’s work is evolving, experimental, and embraces the mess, possibility and fun of collaboration across places.