Joyful Curating | carla joy bergman

Curating!

With years of experience producing and organizing community-engaged arts projects and events, literary anthologies, and more — I am excited to be offering my supportive and collaborative guidance to emerging and professional artists!

My true passion is to create art and literary spaces where folks can come together to share beauty, ideas, and passions! As well, to have fun and ultimately, to connect with one another!
My approach is eclectic and holistic, and I am more of a conductor or weaver than a traditional curator.
I aim for collaboration when co-creating an event or media-arts project or writing.
My practice and strengths are rooted in starting with a profound trust for the folks I am either working with or inviting in to be part of a project or event.
I centre relationships over all else, and encourage a relationship first space.

My Experience

I have over two decades of experience producing and curating events and social spaces that range from academic and activist conferences or gatherings, to literary-focused to music, to books, pamphlets, and zines, and beyond.

My Aspirations:

I aim to create webs of solidarity where we can move closer towards mutually beneficial relations, rather than transactional ones—blurring the lines between artist/speaker and viewer/audience.
I aim to deepen connections and amplify voices and stories, while also focusing on expanding on the how and the who is invited in and involved.
My work is anchored in access with an intersectional approach.
I love to see curation as a form of composing our worlds, or worlding. And I do this in two distinct ways: Hospitality and Intervention,
- By truly inviting folks across differences to be part of the work/conversation in sincere ways, whether as collaborators or audiences; this is what hospitality means to me.
- Woven into all my creations are interventions into areas of struggle and normalcy; while also affirming all the ways we always-already are doing wonderful things, often thriving at the edges.
I am particularly keen on building webs of relationships through connecting folks to each other and our varied stories, and to diverse audiences.

Together, we can create beautiful, impactful, and relevant works and spaces for a variety of projects and events!

Payment and Fees:

My baseline fees support a living wage, and are flexible and case-by-case. I consider the scope of the project, the budget, and the work/contract when negotiating payment.