Exhibiting Your Work

Please join us as we welcome Alessandro Facente and Nicole Pollard for an MFA Professional Development panel discussion. Our guests will share information on gallery representation, curatorial relationships, self-organized exhibition-making, publishing, and online publicity and presence. Food will be served!

Guest speakers:

Alessandro Facente is a New York–based Independent art critic and curator, holding an M.A. in Art History and Contemporary Art from La Sapienza University in Rome. Since the early 2010s, he has been developing a cross-continental curatorial practice between Italy, Europe, North Africa, and the United States, focusing on context, process, politics, and community through a concept that he refers to as ‘curaticism.’  He has participated in various curatorial programs, including Residency Unlimited (New York), HIAP (Helsinki, Finland), Ateliê397 (São Paulo, Brazil), and 'CPR 2018' (Iceland, Faroe Islands, Finland, Norway, and Sweden); and curated solo/group exhibitions, independent projects, and talks in non-profit spaces, foundations, and galleries, such as Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space, Critical Practices Inc., NARS Foundation, Italian Institute of Culture in New York, and Kunstverein Dresden (Germany). Between 2018 and 2025, he served as a curator at Artists Alliance Inc. As a Lecturer, Facente teaches at institutions such as Digital and Interdisciplinary Art Practice at CCNY, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and School of Visual Arts, with his involvement varying by semester. His articles, interviews, and essays on contemporary art and institutional conditions have appeared in art magazines such as Art Asia Pacific, Heichi, Hyperallergic, and Temporary Art Review. As a Visiting Critic, he has engaged with organizations such as Art Omi, NYFA, Art In General, and schools like the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Pratt Institute, University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, and Columbia GSAPP.

Nicole Pollard is an artist, curator, exhibition designer, and yoga teacher. She is passionate about supporting artists and creating experiences that speak to her interests in both rest and play as core needs for individual and collective wellbeing. She currently works as Senior Residency Manager at Leeway Foundation. In the past, she has worked as Curator of Lived Culture at Philadelphia Contemporary, Project Manager of The Velocity Fund, and other projects at Temple Contemporary, and Exhibit Designer for Museum of Impact and Leeway Foundation. Pollard holds an MFA in Museum Exhibition Planning + Design from the University of the Arts and a BFA in Art Education from Virginia Commonwealth University.

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.