As a curator of public programs, Paloma Checa-Gismero amplifies artists and cultural producers who work towards a more inclusive and just world for all. Influenced by her pedagogical practice, she believes in the power of public culture as a vehicle towards individual and social change.
Checa-Gismero thrives in the confluence of institutional opportunity, grass-roots relations, and public service. As such, she has served art institutions in different capacities –as advisor, programming curator, and cultural mediator. She continues to work in the US and internationally and is available for similar roles in new projects.
LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE:
Crafting Kin: A Year of Socially Engaged Art – Public series and socially engaged art festival, Swarthmore College. Curator, 2025-26
Society of Contemporary Art Historians (SCAH) – Programs Coordinator, 2022-24
Rosine 2.0 (Swarthmore College, Pew Foundation) – Advisory Board, 2021-23
Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsiblity – Advisory Board, 2020-22
Around the Corner: Community Arts and Activism, Swarthmore College – Steering committee, 2019-21
Una Ciudad Muchos Mundos, Madrid City Council initiative on socially engaged art – Board and selection committee, 2017-18
RAMPA Art Space (Madrid) – Co-curator, 2009-11
CORE Labs (Beijing) – Cultural manager, 2010
EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE:
FIELD Journal of Socially Engaged Art Criticism, Editorial collective, 2014-20
COCOM Press (Merida, Mexico) – Chief editor, 2012-14
CONFERENCE ORGANIZER:
The Political Life of Cultural Production in the 21st Century, The U.S.-Mexican Studies Center, UCSD. – Conference organizer, 2017
Local Revolutions. Visual Arts department, UCSD – Conference organizer, 2016
Left Spaces in Latin America, UCSD – Conference organizer, 2016
programming
