Johanne Affricot, the Rome-based founder and artistic director of GRIOTmag and SPAZIO GRIOT, has been appointed curator-at-large by the American Academy in Rome. She has joined the programmes team since October 2023. At AAR,  Affricot will work with the Andrew Heiskell Arts Director Ilaria Puri Purini in planning public exhibitions and other arts programming.

The American Academy in Rome, directed by Ph.D. Aliza S. Wong since 2022, is located on the Janiculum Hill overlooking the city. The academy is a leading centre for independent study and advanced research in the arts and humanities. With a vast history of 130 years, the Academy has offered support, time, and an inspiring environment to gifted artists and scholars. The Academy serves as a base to visiting U.S. scholars and artists that have been awarded the Rome Prize, confered to around 30 artists and scholars every year.

As an independent curator and cultural producer, Johanne Affricot is particularly invested in creative spaces as re-generative devices to collectively cultivate and disseminate strategies and practices of radical imagination that have a strong cultural and social impact. Her recent projects include the solo exhibition Il Mio Filippino: For Those Who Care To See (Mattatoio, Rome, 2023); the group show and public programme Sediments. After Memory (Mattatoio, Rome, 2022); and the discursive programme Chef Binta. Reframing Traditions (Museo delle Civiltà, Rome, 2022). An independent researcher, Affricot holds an MA in innovation and development from La Sapienza, Università di Roma. In 2022 she coedited the limited-edition poetry collection Rage & Desire (SPAZIO GRIOT, British Council) and the publication Exercises for the Imagination of a Space (SPAZIO GRIOT, Palazzo Esposizioni Roma).

Beside serving as curator-at-large at the American Academy in Rome, Affricot will continue to work at SPAZIO GRIOT as artistic director.