Join us for an afternoon with Brandee Caoba, artist, curator, writer, and cultural activist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In this talk, Caoba reflects on her curatorial work at SITE Santa Fe, a contemporary art space known for its experimental programming. She offers a model for curating as a form of connection, catalyzing empathy across divides. Approaching exhibitions as porous and evolving structures shaped by dialogue, community, and time, Caoba considers how they can serve as sites of civic connection, social repair, grief, ceremony, resistance, and joy.
Caoba is a faculty member for Fall 2025 Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR), a transformative five-week residency that provides mentorship, critical feedback, and studio time to visual artists and curators at any stage of their career.
This event is part of the Visual Arts Open Lecture Series, which presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.
Visual Arts is supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.
About Brandee Caoba
Brandee Caoba
Brandee Caoba is an artist, curator, and cultural activist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work explores the intersection of art and social change, using storytelling to spark dialogue, raise political awareness, and challenge conventional ways of seeing and thinking.
Since 2016, Caoba has curated over forty exhibitions and projects at SITE SANTA FE, a contemporary art space known for its experimental programming. She has collaborated with internationally recognized artists and curators, as well as emerging voices, focusing on work that boldly addresses urgent environmental, social, and cultural issues.
Her curatorial approach is both critical and responsive, shaping exhibitions that confront global challenges such as climate change, migration, displacement, border policies, gun violence, trans* rights, mass incarceration, and feminist movements. Prioritizing the voices and visions of the artists she works with, Caoba creates dynamic, thought-provoking spaces where diverse ideas converge. Her exhibitions function as sites of transformation—where art acts as a catalyst for dialogue, healing, reflection, and change.
Over the past decade at SITE SANTA FE, Caoba has developed expertise in commissioning ambitious new artworks, public installations, performances, and programs, shaping projects that engage with the complexities of contemporary experience. Recent curatorial projects include Dakota Mace: DAHODIYINII—SACRED PLACES (2025), Harmony Hammond: FRINGE (2025), Cassils: Movements (2024), Carmen Herrera: I’m Nobody, Who Are You? (2024), Nicholas Galanin: Interference Patterns (2023), and Jeffrey Gibson: The Body Electric (2022). She is also the organizing curator for the 12th SITE Santa Fe International, Once Within a Time, opening in June 2025 and curated by Cecilia Alemani.