ABOUT
Stella Sideli is an experienced curator, researcher, creative mentor and consultant with over 14 years of experience in the cultural sector, working across international platforms in the UK, Europe and the Mediterranean, both live and online.
She is concerned with the intersection of institutions and feminisms, the ethics of curating, the relationship between curator and artist, equity and inclusion within the arts, with a particular focus on amplifying the voices of women, non-binary, queer, migrant artists, and a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary practices.
Currently, she is a researcher at the University of Liverpool, supported by the Liverpool School of the Arts Doctoral Award, where she combines academic research with hands-on curatorial practice, on the theme of listening as a response to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in curatorial and institutional practices, while serving as the research curator at Fact Liverpool until 2025. She has curated and produced a wide range of exhibitions and public programs for leading cultural institutions: as curator at Somerset House in London, she has set up Gallery 31 in 2019; she was also curating the artist development programme, the international artist residencies and the related partnership programmes on occasion of new commissions; as the programmes consultant at Space Studios, with a focus on the online, community and public programmes she has worked closely with a community of nine hundred artists, across artist development, community and public programmes. Between 2014 and 2018, she was curating exhibitions at Tenderpixel in London.
As mentor, coach and consultant she merges curatorial and institutional experience to support artists and creatives (eg. Creative Impact Research Centre Europe (CIRCE), Berlin, DE; Castlefield Gallery, Manchester; Primary, Nottingham; Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge; Somerset House; Women Connect UK; Artist Mentor all UK) to transform knowledge and research into impactful creative practice.
Her work spans across multiple global platforms, where she has consistently demonstrated expertise in project management, creative coaching, strategic consulting, collaborative leadership to transform research into impactful cultural projects, and the development of artist-led initiatives. Stella is deeply committed to creating inclusive cultural environments that reflect the diversity of contemporary society and enable world-making through collective imagination and collaborative world-building.
She completed her postgraduate studies at Goldsmiths University of London, UK, in Critical Theory and Practice (Cultural Studies); with prior training in communication and semiotics from the University of Palermo, Italy. She also holds a PGD from Birkbeck University on Arts Management and Policy.
Recent curated projects include: Temporary Compositions, with Abbas Zahedi, Phoebe Davies, Joe Namy, Sonya Dyer, Somerset House, London UK (2021-2022); Create, Capture, Organise, Pluralise, with Josiane M.H. Pozi, Majed Aslam, Ilona Sagar, Col Self in collaboration with Farvash and vvxxii (Sp0re), Somerset House, London UK (2021); I Should Be Doing Something Else Right Now, with Maeve Brennan, Vivienne Griffin, rkss & Laura Fox, Rhea Storr, Sam Williams & Roly Porter, Somerset House, London UK (2020-2021); Bonds, with Laura Grace Ford, Anna Mikkola, Imran Perretta, Hannah Perry, Nick Ryan and Flora Yin-Wong at Gallery 31, Somerset House, London UK (2019-2020); The Distance is Nowhere, with Paul Maheke, Sophie Mallett, GAM Palermo IT (2018); Nimiia Cétiï, Jenna Sutela, Somerset House, London UK (both 2018); A Gesture Towards Transformation with Aimar Arriola, Nicole Bachmann, Omer Fast, Pedro G. Romero, Paul Maheke, Amalia Pica at Tenderpixel, London, UK (2017); Unknown Tongues, off-site sound event at Five Miles, London UK (2017); Tropical Hangover, with Salvatore Arancio, Zuzanna Czebatul, Rowena Harris, Laure Prouvost, Suzanne Treister at Tenderpixel, London UK (2017); Feeling In The Eyes, with Nina Beier, David Ferrando Giraut, Will Kendrick, Seth Price, Rustan Söderling at Tenderpixel, London UK (2016); The Role of Unintended Consequences, with Eva Fàbregas, Joey Holder, Laure Prouvost, at Syndicate, Cologne DE (2016).