The landscape of presenting culture is more in flux than ever.

The landscape of presenting culture is more in flux than ever.

Principal

Nato Thompson is an award winning author, curator, entrepreneur and self-described “cultural infrastructure builder”. He believes deeply in the power of art to galvanize new ideas and new forms of community.

Thompson began his career as Curator at MASS MoCA, where he completed numerous large-scale exhibitions such as The Interventionists: Art in the Social Sphere, a survey of political art of the 1990s. He was the Chief Curator and then Artistic Director for the public art organization Creative Time in New York where he gained vast experience in the production of memorable public art such as Kara Walker’s A Subtlety, Paul Chan’s Waiting for Godot, Ramírez Jonas’s Key to the City, and Trevor Paglen’s The Last Pictures. At Creative Time he organized numerous summits on art and social justice. Thompson was a Partner at artw rld where he worked with contemporary artists to make high end digital artworks. He worked with Philadelphia Contemporary on a project to build a 21st century museum in Philadelphia. Thompson is currently the Founder and Director of The Alternative Art School, an online art school connecting the world's most visionary artists with working artists around the globe.

He has worked with some of the most prominent names in contemporary art such as Paul Pfeiffer, Pedro Reyes, Shirin Neshat, Jeremy Deller, Tania Bruguera, Simone Leigh, Arthur Jaffa, Jeffrey Gibson, Dinos Chapman, Superflex, Mickalene Thomas, Michael Rakowitz, Duke Riley and hundreds more. 

Thompson’s writings have appeared in numerous publications including ArtForum, Huffington Post, PBS, Art Journal, Parkett, Cabinet, and The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest. He is the author of several books and catalogs, including Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the 21st Century and Culture as Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everyday Life.

He earned an MA in Arts Administration & Policy in 2001, and also holds a BA in Political Theory from the University of California at Berkeley.

Thompson lives and works in Philadelphia and New York City. He is also a joy to work with, and actually likes people and art.

Director

Saul Appelbaum is an artist, curator, media director, producer, and digital marketing strategist in the arts and culture sector. His practice combines storytelling, design, architectonic thought, and media to amplify cultural narratives and experiment with new infrastructures for collaboration. He is committed to the ability of participatory media and art to reshape how audiences experience culture across disciplines, fostering engagement that is both intellectual and emotional.

Appelbaum is the Founding Director of The Pioneers, a media production company and “co-op of gifted and generous minds” that champions Agile Cinema®, an agile, hybrid mode of media creation spanning fiction, non-fiction, scripted, and unscripted formats. Through The Pioneers he has overseen projects such as Narrative Fieldwork on the Curator platform for The Broad Museum, Serpentine Galleries, Marian Goodman Gallery, and Petzel Gallery—works reflecting his commitment to experimentation and multichannel cultural storytelling.

In addition, Appelbaum serves as Director at Dreaming in Public, Director at Rusha & Co., Digital Director at Curator, and Digital Marketing Director at ENSO Law. These roles demonstrate his capacity to move fluidly between curatorial, editorial, and strategic practices, building platforms that connect artists, businesses, and institutions to global audiences.

His collaborations include Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Vogue, InStyle, L’Officiel, Grazia, Numéro, Critical Inquiry, Hirmer Verlag, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of the African Diaspora, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Kunstmuseum Bern, The Columbus Museum of Art, The Singapore Art Museum, Atlanta Art Fair, TRANSFER Gallery, The Jewish Federation, Perry Ellis, ASICS, Kids of Immigrants, The Visionaries Agency, TCAmgmt, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, FGP Atelier, Rocco Castoro’s SCNR, and Nato Thompson’s The Alternative Art School. He has also worked with artists and cultural figures including Tony Cragg, Ann Hamilton, Pope.L, Mick Jenkins, Snoop Dogg, Adam McKay’s Yellow Dot Studios, Heidi Klum, Diego Boneta, Natalia Reyes, and Zión Moreno.

Appelbaum holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a Master of Architecture from Cornell University, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Chicago. He is based in Los Angeles and travels globally for work.