ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY (April 23, 2025)—The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) announces the evolution of its leadership team through two appointments that further advance the institution’s role as a leading incubator for ideas in the curatorial field. Lauren Cornell, who has served as Director of the Graduate Program and Chief Curator since 2017, will assume the new role of Artistic Director, and Argentinian scholar and curator Mariano López Seoane will take the helm of CCS Bard’s renowned graduate program in curatorial studies, becoming Director of the Graduate Program and ISLAA Fellow in Latin American Art, a role made possible through a strategic partnership and core support from the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA).
The transition takes place as CCS Bard prepares to open a major expansion of its library and archives, the Keith Haring Wing, which will significantly increase the Center’s capacity for research and teaching, as well as the accessibility of its collections.
“We are excited to welcome Mariano López Seoane as the new Director of the Graduate Program and ISLAA Fellow in Latin American Art, and for Lauren Cornell to assume the position of Artistic Director while remaining an important voice among our distinguished faculty,” said CCS Bard Executive Director Tom Eccles. “The synergy of the graduate program and Hessel Museum of Art, alongside our library and archives, make the Center for Curatorial Studies a uniquely dynamic art institution. These new positions will enhance and expand our programmatic capacities and core teaching mission.”
In her tenure as Director of the Graduate Program, Cornell has significantly broadened the scope of its curriculum and programming, and expanded the faculty to better reflect the complexities of the global art field, developing strategic partnerships with organizations such as Forge Project, the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA), and departments across the College, all of which have offered new areas of curricular innovation and pathways for graduate students. She has overseen the education of over 100 early-career curators who are now contributing to the international curatorial field.
As Chief Curator, she developed an innovative curatorial program at CCS Bard’s Hessel Museum of Art, organizing career-defining surveys of Sky Hopinka, Martine Syms, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Dara Birnbaum, Nil Yalter (with Museum Ludwig, Cologne), Leidy Churchman, Erika Verzutti, and, with CCS Bard Executive Director Tom Eccles, Ho Tzu Nyen. Cornell also facilitated the development of touchstone exhibitions such as Black Melancholia, curated by Nana Adusei-Poku, and Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969, curated by Candice Hopkins, among other projects.
In her new role, Cornell will continue to oversee and enhance the Hessel Museum of Art’s program while seeking to grow its base of support and financial capacity, refining its acquisitions strategy, and working to further enhance its presence and reputation as a dynamic destination for contemporary art. In addition, she will continue her active role on the CCS Bard faculty, teaching courses within the graduate program.
López Seoane has been a member of the CCS Bard faculty since 2023. He currently leads the ISLAA Artist Seminar, an annual, research-intensive course that results in a student-curated exhibition drawing from the ISLAA archives and collections in New York, part of an institutional partnership designed to elevate Latin American art within the curatorial field.
ISLAA and CCS Bard’s ongoing collaboration has fostered new opportunities for graduate students to engage directly with Latin American artists, archives, and exhibition-making. The new ISLAA Fellowship position builds on ISLAA’s decade-long commitment to educational partnerships. Founded in 2011, the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art supports advanced research, exhibitions, and publications on Latin American art in partnership with leading academic and cultural institutions. López Seoane will continue to teach the ISLAA Artist Seminar, among other courses, while overseeing all aspects of the CCS Bard graduate program.
López Seoane’s appointment affirms CCS Bard’s commitment to innovation and experimentation in curatorial practice, and a curricular emphasis on advancing global art histories. He earned his PhD from New York University, where he was also a visiting assistant professor, and has previously worked as a professor and curator in Buenos Aires and New York. His career has been defined by a deep engagement with cultural production, contemporary aesthetics, and critical theory in a global context. This can be seen in his extensive teaching experience, curatorial projects, and his published scholarship.
As director of the MA program on Gender Studies and Policies at Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) in Buenos Aires, López Seoane led a graduate-level curriculum that bridged the humanities, social sciences, and contemporary culture. His prior teaching and curatorial experience have spanned multiple universities and major cultural institutions, including Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Goethe Universität in Frankfurt, Università Roma Tre, Cultural Centre La Nau in Valencia, and MUNTREF Centro de Arte Contemporáneo.
The appointment of López Seoane as Director of the Graduate Program and ISLAA Fellow in Latin American Art is made possible through the generous support of ISLAA, whose collaboration has deeply enriched CCS Bard’s academic and curatorial programs. With the new ISLAA Fellowship, this collaboration will have even greater reach and impact.
The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College
The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) is the leading institution dedicated to curatorial studies, a field exploring the conditions that inform contemporary exhibition-making and artistic practice. Through its Graduate Program, Library and Archives, and the Hessel Museum of Art, CCS Bard serves as an incubator for interdisciplinary practices, advances new and underrepresented perspectives in contemporary art, and cultivates a student body from diverse backgrounds in a broad effort to transform the curatorial field. CCS Bard’s dynamic and multifaceted program includes exhibitions, symposia, publications, and public events, which explore the critical potential of the practice of exhibition-making.