January Parkos Arnall leads the department of Performance and Public Practice at the MCA Chicago. She holds a PhD in cultural studies and museum theory from Claremont Graduate University, an MFA in photography with emphasis in art history from Temple University, and a BFA in fine art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Prior to the MCA, she oversaw public engagement, developed exhibition-related programs, and built exhibitions and residencies at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
At the MCA she has organized over 200 public programs, the collection exhibition Alien vs. Citizen, as well as the Commons Artist Project exhibitions Open 24 Hours with Edra Soto, Ecomonopolies with Joan Giroux, Parts of Speech with Public Fiction and Triple Canopy, A Call and Response with Brendan Fernandes, and The Commons Table with Folayemi Wilson and Norman Teague as blkHaUS Studios. With the artistic division, she co-organized the major group exhibition The Long Dream and its live components, and led a task force on Embedded Engagement that built a framework for multi-year community partnerships, innovative exhibition organizing structures, and a toolkit for accessible public interpretive and engagement resources.
For more, visit linkedin.com/januaryparkosarnall