January 17, 2024, San Francisco, CA – Minnesota Street Project Foundation (MSP Foundation) is thrilled to announce the inaugural 1201 Curatorial Advisory Team, who will guide the programming of the MSP Foundation’s 1201 Minnesota exhibition warehouse, a unique 20,000 square foot space dedicated to an artist-first approach for the presentation of accessible world-class art. The MSP Foundation’s five founding members of the Curatorial Advisory Team — JD Beltran, Rimma Boshernitsan, Julie Casemore, Ashara Ekundayo, and Glen Helfand — begin their roles immediately without term limits.
A non-collecting institution, the MSP Foundation is committed to collaborative partnerships that generate world-class exhibition programs for the Bay Area, amplify artists voices, and provide a unique platform for partnerships and collaborations.
“Each of our founding Curatorial Advisory Team members brings a breadth of valuable professional experiences and a keen understanding of the impact art can have in our lives,” notes Rachel Sample, Director, Minnesota Street Project Foundation. “Their commitment to the MSP Foundation as advisors will enrich and expand the spectrum of opportunities for our 1201 Minnesota exhibition warehouse program, one which is committed to partnerships and exhibitions that represent catalyzing moments for artists and to breaking down barriers between art, artists, and audiences.”
JD Beltran, Center for Creative Sustainability
JD Beltran is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, curator, journalist, author, and designer whose artwork and films have been screened and exhibited internationally including at the Walker Art Center, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the MIT Media Lab, the Kitchen NYC, Ars Electronica, the Getty Institute, the M.H. DeYoung Museum, and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. She has curated and co-curated major international exhibitions including Sophie Calle: Missing, and Isaac Julien: Playtime at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture and is the author and curator of the Master Public Art Plan for the Yerba Buena Downtown Arts District. Her award-winning artwork has been commissioned for public art projects worldwide and she was awarded a Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Fellowship, a Public Art Network Award for creating one of the top public artworks nationally, and residencies at Skowhegan, the Pilchuck School, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Stochastic Labs, the Workshop Residence, and the Lucas Artists Residency at Montalvo Arts Center. She’s also achieved artist grants from Skowhegan, Artadia, the MIT Media Lab, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Workshop Residence, Stochastic Labs, and Ars Electronica. She continues to serve as a Commissioner on the San Francisco Arts Commission where she has served for the past fourteen years (since 2009), and was appointed as its President for 8 years, from 2011 to 2018. She is a professor in Design at San Francisco State University.
Rimma Boshernitsan, DIALOGUE
Rimma Boshernitsan is the founder and CEO of DIALOGUE, an interdisciplinary strategic advisory that helps leaders find the shortest, clearest path to their most ambitious goals. Over her 20-year career, she has served as a strategic advisor and thought partner to CEOs of emerging businesses and Fortune 500 organizations. A native of the former Soviet Union, she’s worked in Moscow, London, and throughout the U.S. Rimma began her career at Deloitte Consulting’s Human Capital practice, where she focused on M&A and large-scale transformation, before providing in-house industry advising in fields including healthcare, consumer business, and telecommunications. She took a brief hiatus from the business world to advise contemporary art collectors. Working closely with artists allowed Rimma to observe interdisciplinary conversations that would emerge as “innovation” in business 10 years later. This shift sparked the realization that bringing unique cultural and political insights into a corporate setting could have a transformative impact, leading her to found DIALOGUE. Rimma is an experienced speaker, interviewer and facilitator who has presented before Fortune 500 companies, their boards, and at global conferences. She channels her cross-sector expertise into a unique ability to synthesize disparate ideas, methodologies and practices. Rimma’s writing has appeared in Fast Company, Inc and Forbes. She is also an advisor to Stanford’s Women in Design Program. She was formerly on the Board of the Headlands Center for the Arts and SECA Council Board of SFMOMA.
Julie Casemore, Casemore Gallery
Julie Casemore is a Director at Minnesota Street Project, where she has led the galleries program since 2015, strategically selecting and recruiting galleries and arts organizations for both permanent and temporary participation in project spaces. She also produces exhibitions for MSP’s 4000-square-foot atrium space at 1275 Minnesota Street, its dedicated media gallery, and other short-term spaces. She is founder of Casemore Gallery, housed in an MSP gallery space, where she represents and exhibits contemporary artists and artists’ estates, including Raymond Saunders, Steve Kahn, Sonya Rapoport, Larry Sultan, Jim Goldberg, John Gossage, Suné Woods, Todd Hido, Whitney Hubbs, and Lindsey White. Over the past two decades, she has served in leadership and advisory roles for a variety of Bay-area arts organizations. In addition to serving on the Foundation’s curatorial advisory team, she is currently Vice President of the San Francisco Art Dealers Association. Julie is a graduate of Louisiana State University, with a BA in Art History.
Ashara Ekundayo, Artist As First Responder
Ashara Ekundayo is a queer, Black feminist interdisciplinary independent curator, visual maker, cultural theologian, arts organizer, and consultant whose creative practice is rooted in joy-informed pedagogies and the study of and creation of Black spaces and archives, site-responsive ceremony, and artist-based strategies such as photography, screenprinting, zine-design, installation, and altar-making. She is the founder of the creative arts braintrust Artist As First Responder and the principal at AECreative Consulting Partners, LLC where cultural production is centered as essential in equitable design practices, real estate development, and movement building. Ashara is also co-founder of Black [Space] Residency and director of The Black Curators Lab—both studio-based artist residencies celebrating the dynamic imagination of Black creatives. Her latest public art experiment, the AfroPortals Project Space & Archive, connects people around the world through a network of retrofitted shipping containers equipped with audiovisual technology.
Glen Helfand, curator & educator
Glen Helfand is a writer, curator, and educator who has engaged the Bay Area art scene for decades. He is an Associate Professor and Chair of Graduate Curatorial Practice at California College of the arts. His writing has appeared in Artforum, The Guardian, Photograph, and many other publications. He has organized exhibitions for the Asian Art Museum San Francisco; San Francisco Art Institute, Mills College Art Museum; deYoung Museum, and others.
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About Minnesota Street Project Foundation
Established in 2019, the Minnesota Street Project Foundation’s mission is rooted in our unwavering dedication to the visual arts in every facet. We operate on the belief that the future of philanthropic support for the arts requires an alternative model. By providing space and infrastructure for the creation and exhibition of the contemporary arts we generate sustainable support for the Bay Area arts communities. Our programming enables new arts initiatives, collaborations, public exhibitions, and capacity building grants.
Located in San Francisco’s Dogpatch district, Minnesota Street Project Foundation is part of the contemporary art campus that is home to Minnesota Street Project, a for-profit enterprise that includes over a dozen art galleries, art non-profits, the acclaimed Besharam restaurant, and the affiliated Minnesota Street Project Art Services. 100% of Art Services’ profits are used to support the artists, galleries, and institutions that comprise the Project and the Foundation.
To request interviews or more information, contact
Wendy Norris (wendy@minnesotastreetproject.org) and Bill Proctor (bill@minnesotastreetproject.org)
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