Bio
Tempestt Hazel is a curator, writer, and co-founder of Sixty Inches From Center, a collective of editors, writers, artists, curators, librarians, and archivists who have published and produced collaborative projects about artists, archival practice, and culture in the Midwest since 2010. Across her practices and through Sixty, Tempestt has worked alongside artists, organizers, grantmakers, and cultural workers to explore solidarity economies, cooperative models, archival practice, future canon creation, and systems change in and through the arts.
An especially cherished moment for Tempestt was when she received the 2019 J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award from the Society of American Archivists, which was the result of a nomination by archivists and members of The Blackivists.Tempestt was born and raised in Peoria, Illinois, spent several years in the California Bay Area, and has called Chicago her second home for over 13 years.
CV
In the spirit of archiving and maintaining my records, this CV is a nearly comprehensive list of projects, events, speaking engagements, and work experience.
Curatorial Projects.
2020 suma de mis partes/sum of my parts, Plomo Gallery, Ciudad de México, Mexico [POSTPONED]
2018 Black Archives Revisited (Revisited/Reflected Series): The Catalyst’s Black FolkUs and the International Black Writers Conference (After Alice Browning), (part of The Time Is Now!: Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side, 1960-1980), The Smart Museum, Chicago, IL
2018 Holdings: On The Art and Influence of Dr. Margaret T. Burroughs, [Ongoing Independent Project], Chicago, IL
2016 Shared Language: A Community Classroom, Arts Incubator at University of Chicago
2015 Lost In Trans, University of North Texas, Denton, TX
2013 Recess, South Side Community Art Center, Chicago, IL
2013 Tropisms (Diana Gabriel), The Salon Series Projects at FLATS Studios, Chicago, IL
2013 Serenade, Terrain Exhibitions, Oak Park, IL
2012 Locality, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL
2012 The Tipping Point of Me and We, Contemporary Arts Council Exhibition, Little Black Pearl, Chicago, IL
2011 The Future’s Past, Black Metropolis Research Consortium Fellowship, Blanc Gallery, Chicago, IL
Collaborative Curatorial Projects.
2024 Chicago Archives + Artists Festival: Embodying the Archive, Experimental Station, Chicago, IL
2023 Chicago Archives + Artists Project: Case Studies in Collaboration (Book)
2022 Fresh Cut Flowers with AZITA Youssefi, Chicago Film Archives with film premiere at Constellation, Chicago, IL
2020 Loss/Capture, Vol. 1: Love Letters to Black Archives, Collections, and Memories with Steven D. Booth, Stacie Williams, and Noor Shawaf, Sixty Inches From Center
2018 Artists + Archives: Pilots with Ivan LOZANO, Aay Preston-Myint, + H. Melt, with Kate Hadley Toftness at Leather Archives & Museum, Chicago, IL
2018 The Time is Now!: Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side, 1960-1980, Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL
2015 Forms of Imagination with Paola Aguirre for Chicago Architecture Biennial, Arts Incubator at University of Chicago
2015 Three the Hard Way with Hamza Walker and Camille Morgan, Logan Gallery at University of Chicago
2015 exceptional/respectable with James T. Green, Arts Incubator at University of Chicago
2015 Windy City Breakdown with Ayana Contreras, Arts Incubator at University of Chicago
2015 Sugar Foot Rain Dance with David Leggett, Arts Incubator at University of Chicago
Select Writings.
2024 Notes to Self, co-edited with Steven D. Booth, Archives of American Art Journal
2023 On Collaborative Recompositions and Shabez Jamal as Archive, Sixty Inches From Center
2022 On Wordplay, Rhythm, and the Art of Ryan Adams, Indigo Arts Alliance
2022 [upcoming] On Material, Imagination, and Never A Lovely So Real, Never A Lovely So Real Exhibition Catalog, Art Institute of Chicago
2022 A love note from the other side, 2022 Creating a Living Legacy Guide, Joan Mitchell Foundation
2022 A Prelude and Postscript to Finding Liberation in the Night’s Sky, or Before and After Remaking the Exceptional, Remaking the Exceptional: Tea, Torture, & Reparations | Chicago to Guantánamo, DePaul Art Museum
2021 Our Girl Tuesday: An Unfurling for Dr. Margaret T. G. Burroughs, co-edited with Skyla Hearn and Sarah Ross, Introduction by Mariame Kaba, Sojourners for Justice Press
2020 Women in the Alcoves, Where the Future Came From (catalog), Soberscove Press
2020 The Art Poetica and Origin Story of Krista Franklin, Too Much Midnight, Haymarket Books
2019 Artists Gotta Eat and Other Things We Forget To Remember, Common Field, Field Perspectives
2018 The Thrival Geographies of Shani Crowe, Andres L. Hernandez, and Amanda Williams, Sixty Inches From Center
2018 Who Are Your Teachers?: After Richard Hunt at the Koehnline Museum of Art, Sixty Inches From Center/Art Design Chicago
2018 Not So Tight: Adjusting the Seams of Art and Fashion, Exhibitions on the Cusp (Tremaine Foundation)
2018 Justice on View: Struggle, Liberation, and Protest Within the Exhibition Space, Exhibitions on the Cusp (Tremaine Foundation)
2018 Let This Be A Lesson, or Caring for Historical Records, Art AIDS America (Chicago catalog)
2017 Coup de Main + Measurements in the Work of Minerva Cuevas, Prospect New Orleans
2017 Adorning the Lost & Found, Foreword for In the Company of Black by Cecil McDonald, Jr.
2017 It Bears Repeating, Jan Tichy's Beyond Streaming Exhibition Essay, Broad Museum
2017 Footnotes for Fragments, Ground Floor Exhibition Essay, Hyde Park Art Center
2016 Meditations on the Poetics of Revolution: A Letter to Kerry James Marshall, Artslant
2015 Augmenting Our Cultural Garden: Interview with Faheem Majeed, Support Networks: Chicago Social Practice History Series, Edited by Abigail Satinsky, University of Chicago Press
2014 To Chicago, With Love, GOOD Magazine, The GOOD Cities Project
2014 Preserving and Activating Local Art Histories, Unfurling: Explorations In Art, Activism and Archiving
2014 For (The things to/we come) To, Dedications for The Shape of Spilled Milk by Matt Austin
2014 On Cecil McDonald, Jr's Domestic Observations and Occurrences, Contact Sheet: Light Work Annual
2013 Beautiful Tension: A Conversation with Natalie Krick, The Coat Check, Exhibition Catalog
2013 A Necessary Shift, The City Gallery, Helen Maurene Cooper Exhibition Essay
2013 Lifework/I’m Not Asking You, I’m Telling You, A writing on E.J. Hill
2010 - 2020 100+ Articles on Sixty Inches From Center
2010 - 2011 20+ Articles on College Arts Association Blog
Residencies, Awards, and Invitations.
2025 Critic’s Table, Arts & Public Life at University of Chicago
2023 Teiger Foundation, Grants for Curators
2022 Re/Union: Re-Editioning Black & Native Histories, Indigo Arts Alliance at Haystack Mountain School of Craft
2022 Surf Point Foundation Residency
2019 J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award, Society of American Archivists
2016 Visiting Critic, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2016 Curating for Communities of Color Symposium, SLIPPAGE: Performance, Culture, Technology, Duke University
2016 Banff International Curatorial Institute Critical Art Writing Ensemble, Banff Centre
2016 Ragdale Foundation Residency, Susan Tillett Fellowship
2013 Southside Arts and Humanities Network Board Leadership Program
2012 Contemporary Arts Council Curatorial Award
2011 Chicago Artists Coalition HATCH Residency Curator
2011 University of Chicago's Black Metropolis Research Consortium Fellowship
Talks.
2025 Creating Future Memory Convening, Joan Mitchell Foundation
2023 Studios, Joan Mitchell Center
2023 South Side Community Archiving Now at Green Line Performing Arts Center
2022 Joy as a Question: Bimbola Akinbola, Erin Kilmurray, and Derek Lee McPhatter in conversation with Tempestt Hazel, Chicago Performs at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
2022 Case Studies From The Other Side, Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship Convening (New Orleans), Workshop Facilitator
2022 The Blackivists + Sixty Inches From Center at Reed College (Portland, OR), Panelist
2022 Art Libraries of North American 50th Anniversary Conference, Plenary/Keynote Address
2021 Artist Talk: VOICES; “To Keep, To Care, To Leave Behind,” Gallery 400 at University of Illinois at Chicago
2021 Community Archiving (with Sojin Kim), DC Public Library/Goethe Institute at MLK Memorial Library’s The People’s Archive
2021 Living Room Light Exchange: Sixty Inches From Center and The Blackivists, Aggregate Space Gallery
2021 Virtual Artist Talk: In Conversation with Hebru Brantley, Art Institute of Chicago
2021 Surviving the Pandemic: From emergency response to best practice, Grantmakers in the Arts
2021 A Conversation between Faheem Majeed and Tempestt Hazel, Society for Contemporary Art, the Art Institute of Chicago [recording]
2020 Sixty Inches From Center and Dreams of Future Canons, Society of American Archivists Conference, Keynote Speaker
2020 Archive your story with Sixty Inches From Center (with Steven Booth, Noor Shawaf, and Stacie Williams), Apple Store (Michigan Avenue, Chicago)
2020 Remake the Model: Building a Solidarity Economy for the Arts with Hoda Katebi, Angie Kim, and Eric Williams, Arts Funders Forum, Co-host and Moderator
2019 Expressions for Justice: Grantmaking in the Arts for Systems Change, Grantmakers in the Arts Conference, Denver, CO, Organizer
2019 For Freedoms Town Hall, Sullivan Galleries, Moderator
2019 Policies for an Arts-Driven City, Chicago Humanities Festival, Panelist
2019 Art Now! Lecture, Columbia College Chicago, Lecturer
2019 The Public Library: New Curatorial Perspectives, at The Association of Art Museum Curators Conference, New York Historical Society, Panelist
2019 Women in the Alcoves: On Alice Browning, Dr. Margaret Burroughs, and the Women of The Catalyst, for Where the Future Came From at Glass Curtain Gallery, Lecture
2019 Discussion w/ Faheem Majeed, Julie Rodriguez Widholm and Greg Foster Rice, Art Design Chicago Partner Breakfast, Chicago History Museum, Moderator
2018 Tremaine Foundation’s 20th Anniversary Curatorial Symposium, New Museum, Speaker
2018 Speech & Museums, Museum of Contemporary Art, Panel
2017 Intersectional Identities and Political Practices, DePaul Art Museum, Panel
2017 Legacies at Art, Publics, Politics: Legacies of the Wall of Respect, Northwestern University, Panel Chair
2017 Fresh Walls: New Space for Artists To Occupy, Sixty Inches From Center for Lake FX CreativeCon, Chair
2017 Waves, Web & Page: Dialogue + Cultural Coverage across Platforms, Sixty Inches From Center for Lake FX CreativeCon, Chair
2017 The Party Politic: Building Movements Through Movement, Sixty Inches From Center for Lake FX CreativeCon, Chair
2017 Publishing for Activism with OOMK, Gray Center for Art and Inquiry, University of Chicago, chair
2016 The Social Practice That Is Race w/ Anthony Romero + Dan S. Wang, Hyde Park Art Center, Discussion Moderator
2014 The Pulse of Africa: Celebrating 25 Years of the African Arts Festival, Logan Center at University of Chicago, Panel Moderator
2014 Archiving & Amplifying Chicago's Experimental Creativity, Intuit, Panel moderated by Marc Fischer
2014 Preserving and Activating Local Art Histories, Chicago Cultural Center, Panel
2013 Progressive Conversations, University of Chicago, Chicago Art Department, Conversation
2013 Recess: Artist Talk, South Side Community Art Center, Discussion
2013 Gallery Encounters: Diasporal Rhythms, Logan Center For The Arts, Panel
2013 Beyond the Gallery, Filter Photo Festival, Panel Moderator
2013 Gallery Encounters: AfriCOBRA, Logan Center For The Arts, Guest Lecture
2013 Never The Same at the Chicago Artists' Archive, Harold Washington Library, Class Lecture
2013 What is Afro-Surreal?, Marvelous Freedom/Vigilance of Desire, Revisited, Panel Moderator
2012 The Art of Crossing the Street, South Side Community Art Center, Panel
2012 Artist talk with Sam Kirk, Elephant Room Gallery, Inc., Artist Talk
2012 Community Engagement, Revival Bronzeville, Discussion Moderator
2012 Conversation with Photographer Mike Schreiber, Silver Room, Public Interview
2012 Chicago Is Having A Moment, Sullivan Galleries, Panel moderated by Hamza Walker
Affiliations and Committees.
2025 Restorative Economies - Englewood Cohort, Co-op Ed Center
2024 Joan Mitchell Foundation, Legacy Advisory Council
2023 Archives of American Art Journal, Advisory Board
2022 Hauser & Wirth Institute, Advisory Committee
2021 Loghaven Residency, Knoxville, Tennessee, Application Reviewer
2021 Getty Foundation Advisory Committee, African American Art History Initiative
2020 Third Coast International Audio Festival Audio Unbound Award, Judge
2020 Cultural Advisory Council, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
2019 Art Institute Review, Advisory Board
2019 Chicago Artists Coalition, Maker Grant Juror
2019 Ohio Arts Council, Grants Review Panelist
2019 Loghaven Residency, Knoxville, Tennessee, Nomination and Advisory Panel
2018 MacColl Johnson Fellowships for Writers, Providence, Rhode Island, Jury
2017 Juror, 50 x 50 Invitational: The Subject Is Chicago, Chicago Cultural Center
2016 Archive Partner, Chicago Artists' Archive at Harold Washington Library, since 2010
2016 Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts Artist-in-Residence Jury
2014 Artist and Curatorial Residency Review Committee, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
2014 Juror/Curator, Process Exhibition at Water Street Studios
2014 Chicago Home Theater Festival Curatorial Committee
2014 Juror/Curator, 54th Annual Voertman Student Art Exhibition at University of North Texas
2013 Juror, Arts Council of Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts
2013 Mount Curatorial Residency Review Committee, Design Cloud
2013 Individual Artists Grants Review Committee, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
2013 Application Review Committee, Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions (ACRE)
2013 SUB-MISSION Curatorial Committee, The Mission Projects
2011 - 2012 Host Committee, Leadership Advisory Committee at the Art Institute of Chicago
Resume
Education.
Columbia College Chicago, Bachelors of Art in Art History and Visual Arts Management, 2010
Employment.
2010 - Present
Sixty Inches From Center, Chicago, IL
Co-founder, Director
2017 - 2022
The Field Foundation of Illinois, Chicago, IL
Arts Program Officer
2014 - 2016
Arts + Public Life at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Arts Program Manager, Curator
2012 - 2014
Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL
Professional Development Manager
2010 - 2012
Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, Chicago, IL
Chicago Artists Resource Outreach Coordinator
Freelance.
2012 – 2013
WBEZ, Chicago Public Media, Chicago, IL
Program Manager of Get Archived! Event Series
2011 – 2012
Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, Chicago, IL
Event Coordinator for Creative Chicago Expo
2011
WBEZ, Chicago Public Media, Chicago, IL
Co-Artistic Director of “What’s Your Art?” Celebrating the Art Centers of Chicago
2010 – 2011
College Arts Association, Chicago, IL & New York, NY
Writer for the College Arts Association Conference Blog
2010
Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, Chicago, IL
Blog Manager for Studio Chicago