ARC Keynote at EXPO Chicago Directors Summit
chicago, IL
24-26 April, 2025
Navy Pier Festival Hall
Chicago, IL
Join ARC at EXPO CHICAGO, a preeminent contemporary art fair that from 24 – 27 April 2025, will bring together leading actors in the arts and culture sector. As part of its programming, EXPO Chicago will also celebrate its fourth annual Directors Summit on 24 – 26 April 2025, featuring ARC Executive Director Julie Trébault, who will give the Summit’s keynote lecture. While the initiative previously centered on the emerging generation of art museum leaders nationwide, for the first time, the program will spotlight distinguished leaders from across the globe.
This year’s Directors Summit roundtables will examine the museum as a living organism that serves to heal, protect, connect, and create. Complex structures of mutually interdependent parts, museums are challenged to heal past histories, protect against present threats, support the creative process, and transformatively engage communities in arts and culture. Providing case studies to study and learn from, directors will share their perspectives and experiences, reflecting upon the unique challenges and opportunities emerging from this moment of dramatic change.
The Summit keynote lecture by ARC Executive Director Trébault will comment on contemporary global trends related to artistic freedom of expression and share insights from ARC’s years of uplifting at-risk creatives. The Summit is presented in partnership with museum consultant Jill Snyder, Principal, Snyder Consultancy.
Keynote Speaker
Julie Trébault
Julie Trébault is the Founder and Executive Director of Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), a global organization dedicated to safeguarding artistic freedom and supporting artists and cultural workers under threat. Under her leadership, ARC provides critical resources and support to more than 2,000 artists facing persecution from state and non-state actors, empowering them to overcome challenges to their creative expression. Prior to founding ARC, she served as director of public programs at the Museum of the City of New York and the Center for Architecture.
2025 Participating Directors
Moneta White
Monetta White is the Executive Director and CEO of the Museum of African Diaspora (MOAD). A San Francisco native, she has dedicated her career to preserving African American culture and advocating for the community. With over 20 years of experience in civic engagement, and entrepreneurship, she has collaborated with numerous non-profits, donors, and corporations. Under her leadership, the museum has played a pioneering role in showcasing renowned Black artists and curators locally and internationally. Additionally, she forged a partnership with SFMOMA to establish a joint curatorial position aimed at nurturing the next generation of BIPOC art leaders. Guided by her expertise, the museum has achieved remarkable success, including record-setting donor campaigns and art auctions, doubling its budget, expanding its global reach and digital audience, and creating new opportunities for Black curators and artists.
Laura-Caroline de Lara
Laura-Caroline de Lara is DePaul Art Museum’s interim director since July 2020, having been the collection & exhibition manager and associate director since 2016. Previously, de Lara was the collection & exhibition manager at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum of Chicago, managing exhibitions, publications, and the collection. As registrar for SAIC’s Roger Brown Study Collection she propelled the collection’s organization from 2010-2011. Promoting the work of self-taught artists, she earned her dual Master’s in Modern Art History, Theory, & Criticism and Arts Administration & Policy in 2012 at SAIC. De Lara was project coordinator for the public art organization, UrbanArt Commission in Memphis (2007-2009) and served in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s curatorial and registrar departments, in 2006, supporting such exhibitions and publications as “Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination”, “What’s It All Mean: William T. Wiley in Retrospect” (U of C Press, 2009), and “Modern Masters: American Abstraction at Midcentury (SAAM, 2008).”
Stefanie Hessler
Stefanie Hessler is a curator, writer, editor, and institutional leader. Her work centers artists and ideas through new commissions, transdisciplinary collaborations, and experimental formats, often with a focus on ecologies and technologies. Hessler currently serves as director of Swiss Institute (SI) in New York, the independent non-profit contemporary art institution dedicated to promoting forward-thinking and experimental art making through innovative exhibitions, education, and programs. At SI, Hessler initiated the curatorial project “Spora”, which invites artists to transform the institution through environmental institutional critique, alongside operational steps toward climate action. She recently co-curated solo shows by Raven Chacon, Ali Cherri, and Lap-See Lam, as well as a large-scale East Village-wide exhibition titled “Energies.”
Amanda de la Garza
Amanda de la Garza is curator and art historian. In 2024, she was appointed Artistic Deputy Director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), Madrid, Spain. Previously, she was the Head of Visual Arts at UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and the Director of the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC – Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo). She holds a BA in Sociology, and a MA in Social Anthropology and Curatorial Studies. From 2012 to 2019 she worked as Adjunct Curator at MUAC. She has developed curatorial projects in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Spain and USA. She has been awarded the Emerging Curators Prize, Frontiers Biennial, and several research grants in Mexico and abroad.
Myles Russell-Cook
Myles Russell-Cook is the Artistic Director and CEO of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). Formally Senior Curator of Australian and First Nations Art at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Russell-Cook has contributed to and curated numerous significant and internationally recognised projects for the NGV, including the NGV Triennial, Melbourne Now, and the landmark collection exhibition, QUEER: Stories. Born and raised in Naarm/Melbourne, his maternal Aboriginal ancestors come from the lands of the Wotjobaluk people, and throughout his career he has lived and worked in various communities throughout Australia.
Guillaume Désanges
Guillaume Désanges is is the President of the Palais de Tokyo, exhibition curator and art critic. He runs Work Method, an independent production company. He develops international exhibitions and conference projects. Latest projects: There was a time in the Past where the Future was Present (2015, Museum of Art and History, Saint-Denis, Paris), Ma’aminim / Les Croyants (2015, Museum of Art and History, Saint-Denis & Tranzitdisplay, Prague, Czech Rep. Tchèque), Poésie Balistique (2016, La Verrière, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Brussels), L’esprit français, Countercultures, 1969-1989 (2017, La maison rouge – Fondation Antoine de Galbert, Paris), L’ennemi de mon ennemi (2018, Palais de Tokyo, Paris).
Directors Summit Partner
Jill Snyder
Jill Snyder is Principal of Snyder Consultancy and has held museum leadership positions for over 25 years. She provides strategic expertise for cultural organizations seeking to advance growth and change and convenes thought leaders in dialogue on cultural leadership and museum design.
About EXPO Chicago
EXPO CHICAGO is committed to supporting arts leaders and professionals through educational programs and networking opportunities. The exposition is one of the only art fairs in the United States with dedicated platforms that aim to foster future collaboration and dialogue among local, national, and international directors and curators of contemporary art and architecture
About ARC
Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) is an independent international organization whose mission is to defend and advance the right to artistic freedom, providing practical resources and support for artists and cultural workers at risk worldwide.