![]() ![]() ![]() What is the arts community like there?Ĭhicago has a vibrant arts community, and I was really fortunate growing up to go to The Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art. I really love working with people who make things – objects, films, images, whatever. ![]() When did you realize you wanted to pursue a career in this industry? The whole experience was really extraordinary and shaped my understanding of my own capabilities. It was surreal to move from a language classroom in Beijing’s western outskirts to an immense artist studio in the course of several days. I’ll never forget that my first two days were spent wrestling with several life-sized fiberglass figures from the artist Zhang Dali’s series, Chinese Offspring series, as I prepared them for shipment, and collecting works from Zhang Xiaogang’s studio. At the same time, I was lucky to work with colleagues who believed in my potential and were also very patient with me as I learned to navigate a new professional environment. I was given an immense degree of autonomy and responsibility. We wore a lot of different hats, and I learned not only the ins and outs of gallery management but also an array of practical skills related to running a gallery. What was the most useful or important thing you learned at that job?ħ98 and the Chinese art world was pretty scrappy at that time, and a lot of the operational, administrative, and physical tasks of working in a gallery space fell to our small team of two. I asked if spaces were hiring until I found one that was. Towards the end of a year-long intensive language program, I started knocking door-to-door at galleries in what was then Beijing’s up-and-coming contemporary art hub. My first job was at a contemporary art gallery in the 798 Art District in Beijing. Katherine’s experience is unique, specific and academic, and we are eager to share Katherine’s Frank Talk with you here – please enjoy! What was your first job in the Arts? Currently Katherine is editing a special issue of the Journal of Chinese Cinemas that will be published in 2019. From 2004 to 2009, she lived and worked in Beijing and returned to New York in 2011 as Assistant Producer for the documentary film, “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.” The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and was shortlisted for Best Documentary at the 2013 Academy Awards. Repeat at The Art Institute of Chicago and Art and China After 1989: Theater of the World at the Guggenheim Museum. She has contributed to major exhibitions of Chinese contemporary art, including Zhang Peili: Record. Katherine holds a Master’s degree from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University. Her research examines the contemporary art and visual culture of post-Mao China. Katherine was a 2014 Fulbright Scholar at Peking University and the recipient of the 2013 Asia Art Archive-Robert HN Ho Family Foundation China Research Grant. This week we sit down with Katherine Grube, a lecturer at George Washington University who received her PhD from New York University. ![]()
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