Three curators, all UC Berkeley alumni, explore the process of curating objects, new technologies, and public experiences with different goals and in varied locations. Speakers will also discuss their Berkeley education and share ideas for further collaboration with the university and with Berkeley students.

Ben Davis is the founder and chief visionary officer of Illuminate and the visionary behind The Bay Lights. For more than a quarter century, he has led communications on civic megaprojects and matters of public safety, health, public transit, the environment, urban revitalization, and public art. He was the manager of public information on the $4 billion Boston Harbor cleanup project. He has edited and published Everything Indicates: Bay Bridge Poems & Portraits and is the artist behind Pi in the Sky, a featured work of the 2012 ZERO1 Art & Technology International Biennial and SXSW 2014.

Deena Chalabi is the Barbara and Stephan Vermut Associate Curator of Public Dialogue at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. From 2009 to 2012, she was the founding head of strategy at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar. She created the Pop-Up Mathaf program for collaborative international partnerships, curating Interference at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in July 2011. She guest curated three additional Pop-Up Mathaf programs internationally, and has written for Bidoun, ArtAsiaPacific, and The New Inquiry, among other publications.

René de Guzman is director of exhibition strategy and senior curator of art at the Oakland Museum of California. Previously, he was a founding staff member at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, where he provided early support for some of the Bay Area’s leading artists and worked with national and international emerging and midcareer artists. His artworks are in the collections of museums including BAMPFA and the San Jose Museum of Art. He is currently adjunct professor in the graduate division of the Curatorial Studies Program at the California College of the Arts.