Curriculum vitae of Desiree Dibasen !Nanuses — a decade of curatorial, academic and research practice.
Based in the Modern & Contemporary Art Department completing my final year PhD studies in Fine Art Curatorial Studies. My research titled The Politics of My Skin allowed me to work across departments including the director’s office dealing with strategic planning, policies, frameworks, donors and programming pertaining to decolonial approaches. I engaged with curators for exhibitions within the Costume Institute, the Michael C Rockefeller Wing, the Egyptian Department for The African Origin of Civilization, and the department for European Sculpture & Decorative Arts.
My research centered on the North (West) and South (Africa) metrics, proposing strategies to decolonize canonical art by placing postcolonial scholarship into dialogue with new forms of scholarship that critically re-think contemporary curatorial practices.
Member of NAGN’s senior management team, shaping the organization’s vision and directing its artistic program. Led efforts to build, present, and conserve the NAGN’s collections. Functioned as the lead spokesperson for the art in NAGN’s collection. Actively cultivated relationships with donors, collectors, and the broader art world, and developed civic and philanthropic relationships.
Rewrote and reprogrammed the NAGN’s Curatorial Practice, viewing curating as a contemporary cultural currency, a way to read the present, imagine possible futures, and address the meaning of things while occupying physical and virtual spaces.
Project Manager & Editor for Major Exhibitions:
Served as Curatorial Coordinator and Senior Curator. Proposed annual group shows addressing contemporary issues with two moving internationally. The exhibition Land Matters in Art travelled to Germany, and Unite to End Gender Based Violence traveled to the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva and Kansas University, USA. Handled major logistics, loan agreements, and cross-institutional collaboration.
Managed the Government of the Republic of Namibia permanent collection, overseeing documentation, preservation, and strategic exhibitions of national heritage works.
Led the Education and decentralization program of the NAGN through the Mobile Exhibitions System (MES), traveling bi-monthly to regions across Namibia. Handled all logistics, budgeting, and educational programming. Day-to-day tasks involved collection accessioning and condition reporting, helping grow the collection from ~200 to over 1800 artworks.
Worked in highly creative industries as a marketer for Namibian Sun, and in the film industry for Media Logistics. Reality television show winner (Just Fabulous, One Africa TV) and On-Air Presenter at UNAM Radio and Kudu FM.
Houses all current and past research, writings and projects with relevant links to online exhibitions.
Contemporary Dialogues in the Arts from Africa. Recording under the auspices of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Presented a paper titled ‘Interrogating Curatorship of Human Remains and Religious Objects’ representing Namibia.
Contemporary Art of Africa in the Era of the Pandemic.
A conversation on Restitution, Repatriation, and the Global Pandemic from an African point of view. Moderated by James Green.
‘Cultural Work in Tumultuous Times’.
Nominated by the US Embassy to participate in the US Dept of State project: "Promoting Social Change through the Arts".
Elected as an International Council of Museums International Committee of Museums of Ethnography Fellow. Presented research at the ICOM Triennial in Milan, Italy.
Responsible for exhibition development.
Committee member for annual heritage week.