Aaron Levy

 
Dr. Aaron Levy is a Senior Lecturer in the Departments of History of 
Art and English at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has taught 
since 2002. He is also Director, Health Ecologies Lab, School of
 Social Policy & Practice; Special Advisor, Penn Medicine Academy; and
 Executive Director and Senior Curator, Slought Foundation.


 
He received his PhD from the School of Fine Art, History of Art, and 
Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds, with a focus on the
 cultural, political and economic history of the Venice Biennale. His 
scholarly work explores the cultural politics of memory and display,
 and histories and practices of public culture. He also studies the 
impact of social systems and structures on artists and communities.
 Over fifteen years, he has developed over twenty-five courses 
introducing this work to undergraduate students at the University of 
Pennsylvania, and has annually taught the Spiegel-Wilks curatorial
 seminar for the department. His other areas of interest and 
scholarship include urban studies, architectural theory, and
curatorial studies.


 
These issues are also foregrounded in his work at Slought Foundation 
(https://slought.org), a non-profit organization on the campus of the
 University of Pennsylvania that works with artists, communities, and
 institutions worldwide to develop projects that encourage 
inclusiveness, advocacy, and the sharing of knowledge. He has curated 
exhibitions such as "Into the Open," the US representation at the
 Venice Biennale for Architecture; the “Perpetual Peace Project” at the
 International Peace Institute at the United Nations; "Mixplace Studio" with People’s Emergency Center; and hundreds of other projects with
 individuals such as Werner Herzog, Agnès Varda, Ai Weiwei, Cecil
 Balmond, and Antanas Mockus. This work has been supported through 
grants from foundations such as The Andy Warhol Foundation for the 
Visual Arts, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Graham Foundation 
for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and the National Endowment for
 the Arts, and received coverage in outlets such as The New York Times,
The Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, Artforum, and
 In These Times.


 
He has edited over twenty books, films, and multimedia publications,
 including Cities Without Citizens (2002); Helene Cixous' Ex-cities 
(2007); On the Living History of the Venice Architecture 
Biennale (2010); John Cage's How to Get Started (2010); Evasions of
 Power (2011); Utterly Precarious: Carolee Schneemann (2013); and Art,
 or Listen to the Silence: Soun-Gui Kim with Jacques Derrida and
 Jean-Luc Nancy (2014). Levy has twice served on the Federal Advisory 
Committee on International Exhibitions, was a United States Cultural
 Envoy to Pakistan, and is on the board of directors of AICA-USA, the
 International Art Critics Association.