ABOUT
Stella Sideli is an independent curator, researcher, consultant and coach in the arts, based in London and working in the UK, Europe and the Mediterranean.
Currently, she is developing funded research on the themes of inclusion and tokenisation of groups within public cultural programmes. She is concerned with the intersection of institutional programmes and feminist/queer theories, decolonial practices and ethics of curating; the relationship between curator and artist; emerging technologies, capitalism and the aesthetics of digital culture, with attention to interdisciplinary practices.
Recently, she worked as a curator at SOMERSET HOUSE in London, where she has set up GALLERY 31 in 2019; she was also curating the artist development programme, the international artist residencies and the related partnership programmes on occasion of new commissions. She has recently been a programmes consultant at SPACE Studios, with a focus on the online, community and public programmes; and has worked closely with a community of nine hundred artists, across artist development, community and public programmes.
Between 2014 and 2018, she was curating exhibitions at TENDERPIXEL in London.
Independently, in the last six years, she has been contributing to cultural programmes, taking part in juries and conferences, mentoring artists in galleries and institutions in Europe and the Mediterranean (eg. Italy, Israel, Germany, Finland).
She became an accredited relational dynamics coach in 2020, to further support artists and organisations to grow; using her ten years curatorial and cultural programmer experience, she coaches and mentors artists and creatives (eg. Primary, Nottingham; Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge UK; Somerset House; Women Connect UK; Artist Mentor).
She completed her postgraduate studies at Goldsmiths University of London, UK, in Critical Theory and Practice (Cultural Studies); with prior training in communication and semiotics from the University of Palermo, Italy. She also holds a PGD from Birkbeck University on Arts Management and Policy.
Recent curated projects include: Temporary Compositions, with Abbas Zahedi, Phoebe Davies, Joe Namy, Sonya Dyer, Somerset House, London UK (2021-2022); Create, Capture, Organise, Pluralise, with Josiane M.H. Pozi, Majed Aslam, Ilona Sagar, Col Self in collaboration with Farvash and vvxxii (Sp0re), Somerset House, London UK (2021); I Should Be Doing Something Else Right Now, with Maeve Brennan, Vivienne Griffin, rkss & Laura Fox, Rhea Storr, Sam Williams & Roly Porter, Somerset House, London UK (2020-2021); Bonds, with Laura Grace Ford, Anna Mikkola, Imran Perretta, Hannah Perry, Nick Ryan and Flora Yin-Wong at Gallery 31, Somerset House, London UK (2019-2020); The Distance is Nowhere, with Paul Maheke, Sophie Mallett, GAM Palermo IT (2018); Nimiia Cétiï, Jenna Sutela, Somerset House, London UK (both 2018); A Gesture Towards Transformation with Aimar Arriola, Nicole Bachmann, Omer Fast, Pedro G. Romero, Paul Maheke, Amalia Pica at Tenderpixel, London, UK (2017); Unknown Tongues, off-site sound event at Five Miles, London UK (2017); Tropical Hangover, with Salvatore Arancio, Zuzanna Czebatul, Rowena Harris, Laure Prouvost, Suzanne Treister at Tenderpixel, London UK (2017); Feeling In The Eyes, with Nina Beier, David Ferrando Giraut, Will Kendrick, Seth Price, Rustan Söderling at Tenderpixel, London UK (2016); The Role of Unintended Consequences, with Eva Fàbregas, Joey Holder, Laure Prouvost, at Syndicate, Cologne DE (2016).
Publications include: Point of Divergence One: before breakfast conversations, and Foresight by Earth - Andrea Zucchini (with Tenderbooks imprint).