alicia inez guzmán
A writer, editor & curator based in the southwest.
I am a storyteller and my home is New Mexico.
photo by Mari Angulo
This complex place is my first love and where I was taught about the relationship of land to identity. Each have become common threads in my writing, editing, and curating, which I see as a hybrid creative practice. I have a BAFA in art history from the University of New Mexico and an MA and PhD in visual and cultural studies from the University of Rochester, where I attended as a Provost Fellow. I completed my dissertation about land use histories in the Southwest with research funding from the Latin American Iberian Institute, and as a Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Fellow, in 2016.
With my academic background, I have learned to look at the world closely, to see how culture manifests in the quotidian and to examine the intersection between trauma and resilience, loss and belonging. I constantly think about what it means to be at and away from home. What, I inquire, are the poetics and politics of space?
I have brought these critical inquiries into the undergraduate lectures and seminars I've taught over the past seven years in modern and contemporary art and visual culture of the Americas at the University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music, the University of Buffalo, and Santa Fe University of Art and Design. I have also served as a consultant with various museums about exhibitions and collections and written several catalog essays, curated shows featuring queer artists and artists of color, as well as worked in publishing as the senior editor of New Mexico Magazine, where I regularly sought writers of color and authentic storytelling.
I continue to write about such topics as land use, gentrification, critical art practices, and food sovereignty. I am a 2017 recipient of a Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant for my website Tierra Firme Projects and a 2019 recipient of a Fulcrum Fund.
Writing & Editing
Feature essays, short form writing, blogging, manuscript editing, copy editing.
Curatorial & Collections
Conceptualize and install art exhibitions, research institutional collections.
Public Speaking & Consulting
Workshops, university seminars, non-profit leadership events, event moderation.
Special Projects
Do you have a creative project in mind? I can help you bring it from concept to fruition.