Kathleen Forde Appointed Director and Curator, Media Arts

The Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation announced the appointment of Kathleen Forde as Director and Curator, Media Arts. Forde, who has spent the past year consulting with the Foundation, will oversee its media arts curatorial initiatives, exhibitions, and acquisition strategies.

In her new role, Forde will lead curatorial programming for the Foundation’s media art collection, organizing full-scale exhibitions at its gallery locations, Art Vault in Santa Fe and the Cedar Springs Headquarters in Dallas, as well as curating traveling exhibitions. She will also help expand the Foundation’s Museum Loan Program, promoting the placement of works from the collection in leading institutions worldwide. Additionally, she will provide strategic guidance on acquisitions and oversee the conservation and documentation of the collection.

Since joining the Foundation as a consultant, Forde has played an integral role in shaping its media art collection, bringing in acquisitions from artists including Charles Atlas, Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Miles Greenberg, LoVid, teamLab, and Terry Adkins. She has also spearheaded major commissions with John Gerrard and Rafael Lozano Hemmer, reinforcing the Foundation’s commitment to supporting the creative process and new ideas.

The first exhibitions she will curate and execute as the Foundation’s Director and Curator, Media Arts include Lucid Dreaming: Hallucinations and Alternate Realities from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation, on view at Art Vault in Santa Fe, NM, through May 31; Deconstructing Landscape, on view at the Foundation’s Cedar Springs Headquarters in Dallas, Texas from April 7 until early 2026; and Richard Mosse: Broken Spectre(s), on view at Art Vault from June 27 to September 27.

“Kathleen Forde’s deep expertise in media arts and her visionary approach will be instrumental in shaping the next chapter of the Foundation’s engagement with digital and time-based art,” said founder Carl Thoma. “Her leadership will strengthen our collection-related programs and exhibitions, ensuring that our collection remains dynamic, accessible, and at the forefront of contemporary artistic practice.”

Forde brings over two decades of experience in time-based arts, having held curatorial roles and collaborated with institutions such as Superblue, The Shed (New York), Borusan Contemporary (Istanbul), the Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center (Troy, NY), Eyebeam, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Audemars Piguet, Telefónica (Madrid), Transmediale (Berlin), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

“The Thoma Foundation has been a transformative force in supporting and expanding the discourse surrounding media and digital art. I am honored to be part of a visionary team dedicated to stewarding and growing a collection that reflects both the history and the future of the field. I look forward to deepening connections across disciplines and communities, fostering a greater understanding of how these works shape contemporary culture and artistic practice today,” said Forde.