Founded in 1936, the ICA is one of the oldest museums dedicated to contemporary art in the United States. On this special anniversary, 90 YEARS revisits nine exhibitions and initiatives from the ICA’s history, tracing the museum’s evolution alongside the ever-changing landscape of contemporary art. Join Curator of Collections Erika Umali for a conversation about pivotal moments in the ICA’s history with a focus on the ICA Archives. 

About Erika Umali

Erika Umali is the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston’s first Curator of Collections. She leads strategy around collection development and practices, and highlights the ICA’s collection through focused exhibitions and programming. She has contributed to several ICA exhibitions, including Portraits from the ICA Collection, Wordplay, and An Indigenous Present. Previously she served as the inaugural Assistant Curator of Collections at the Brooklyn Museum where she supported collecting strategies, shepherded thousands of acquisitions, and co-curated Jeffrey Gibson: When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks. Her work focuses on cross-cultural exchange, accessibility within cultural institutions, engaging local and source communities, and decolonizing practices. 

90 YEARS is organized by Meghan Clare Considine, Curatorial Assistant; Jeffrey De Blois, Mannion Family Curator; Ruth Erickson, Barbara Lee Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs; Max Gruber, Curatorial Assistant; Tessa Bachi Haas, Assistant Curator; and Erika Umali, Curator of Collections, with Brianne Chapelle, Curatorial Department Manager.

This exhibition is funded, in part, with support from Kim Sinatra, the Brizius Family Fund for Artists, The Kristen and Kent Lucken Fund for Photography, and Leadership in Art Museums, an initiative to create more racial equity in art museum leadership, supported by the Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Pilot House Philanthropy, and Alice L. Walton Foundation.

The 1960s Andy Warhol Gallery is supported by Judi Kaufman and Arthur Rubin.

With warmest thanks, we gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the ICA’s Avant Guardian Society in making this exhibition possible.