Mike R. Curran
Photo by Sam Finegold
Mike R. Curran is a curator and arts writer originally from Portland, Maine, who lived in the Twin Cities for the past decade. He recently relocated to Kingston, New York, where he is pursuing a master’s degree at Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies.
Curran’s essays and reviews have been featured in Art Papers, Mn Artists, Public Parking, MPLSART.COM, TEMP/reviews, and St. Olaf College’s Flaten Art Museum. He has curated programming at artist-run galleries around Minneapolis, including Mirror Lab, Waiting Room, and Normal Residential Purposes, a pop-up installation space he organized out of his backyard. In 2022, with his frequent collaborator Tom Bierlein, he was awarded an Early-Career Artist Project Grant from Forecast Public Art, through which they organized Area of Concern—a public installation and series of artist-led programs at Crosby Farm Regional Park in St. Paul, Minnesota, centered on ecological grief.
He holds a B.A. in geography and urban studies from Macalester College—an academic foundation that led to his passion for site-specific and ecologically-minded projects that reflect upon our fraying connections with the natural world and with one another, and look to artists who posit different futures.
He has worked at a number of arts and environmental organizations including the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, the Weisman Art Museum, Patrick's Cabaret, Mississippi Park Connection, and Friendly Streets Initiative.
He’s married to Miranda Harris Martínez, a medical student currently participating in a global health fellowship in Peru through the National Institutes of Health.
Want to meet some friends? ︎ Check out the work of a few with whom I recently collaborated: Tom Bierlein︎︎︎, Markele Cullins︎︎︎, Andy Delany︎︎︎, Torey Erin︎︎︎, Sam Finegold︎︎︎, Madeline Garcia︎︎︎, Kathryn Savage︎︎︎, Xavier Tavera︎︎︎, and Bade Turgut︎︎︎.
Curran’s essays and reviews have been featured in Art Papers, Mn Artists, Public Parking, MPLSART.COM, TEMP/reviews, and St. Olaf College’s Flaten Art Museum. He has curated programming at artist-run galleries around Minneapolis, including Mirror Lab, Waiting Room, and Normal Residential Purposes, a pop-up installation space he organized out of his backyard. In 2022, with his frequent collaborator Tom Bierlein, he was awarded an Early-Career Artist Project Grant from Forecast Public Art, through which they organized Area of Concern—a public installation and series of artist-led programs at Crosby Farm Regional Park in St. Paul, Minnesota, centered on ecological grief.
He holds a B.A. in geography and urban studies from Macalester College—an academic foundation that led to his passion for site-specific and ecologically-minded projects that reflect upon our fraying connections with the natural world and with one another, and look to artists who posit different futures.
He has worked at a number of arts and environmental organizations including the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, the Weisman Art Museum, Patrick's Cabaret, Mississippi Park Connection, and Friendly Streets Initiative.
He’s married to Miranda Harris Martínez, a medical student currently participating in a global health fellowship in Peru through the National Institutes of Health.
Want to meet some friends? ︎ Check out the work of a few with whom I recently collaborated: Tom Bierlein︎︎︎, Markele Cullins︎︎︎, Andy Delany︎︎︎, Torey Erin︎︎︎, Sam Finegold︎︎︎, Madeline Garcia︎︎︎, Kathryn Savage︎︎︎, Xavier Tavera︎︎︎, and Bade Turgut︎︎︎.