Erin Elder is an independent curator and consultant with nearly 25 years of experience supporting artists. Having worked in commercial, academic, non-profit, and experimental settings, and with a studio practice of her own, Erin understands many of the challenges facing contemporary artists in the United States. She launched Gibbous in 2015 to support committed artists.

 

Underscoring Erin's work is a commitment to the creative process and direct support for artists. From 2009 - 2013, she cooperatively founded and directed PLAND, an off-the-grid residency program near Tres Piedras, NM. From 2012 - 2015, she was the Visual Arts Director at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, where she curated 50+ exhibitions and many public programs. Under her direction, the program worked directly with artists on exhibitions of new work, designed specifically for the unique gallery spaces at CCA. 

 

She has also produced curatorial projects with a variety of institutions including the Museum of Capitalism, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Creative Time, the Center for Land Use Interpretation, International Symposium on Electronic Arts and the City of Albuquerque. Her writing has been published by University of Minnesota Press, University of Houston Press, and various regional magazines, including a self-published blog and two self-published books. Much of her creative practice merges field research, drawing, writing, and vulnerability. 

 

Erin has secured funding for many of her own independent and institutional projects, including two grants from National Endowment for the Arts and two years of institutional support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. She has received three grants through the Warhol regional regranting program and was a three-time semi-finalist for Creative Capital support. Grant-writing is a favorite activity and is one of the many services she provides as part of Gibbous where she has helped win support for artists ranging from local art awards to international fellowships and national art prizes to funding for projects, research, and travel.

 

Erin is contributing faculty at a number of universities and colleges and serves on several arts boards in Albuquerque. She has an MA in Curatorial Practice from California College of the Arts and a self-designed Bachelors from Prescott College.

 

Gibbous operates on ancestral Tiwa lands in central New Mexico. Erin's home, just outside the city of Albuquerque and on the banks of the Rio Grande, is also a community-nurtured farm and a refuge for traveling artists. Learn more about Erin at http://erinelder.com