Claudia Gould was born and raised near
New Haven, Connecticut. She had a Jewish father and a Roman Catholic mother. She has a bachelor of arts degree in art history from
Boston College and a master's degree from
New York University. As part of her education she was an intern at the
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston,
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,
The New Museum and
Artists Space, NYC. From 1999 to 2011, Gould served as Executive Director of
Artists Space in New York City. Gould has worked as both a staff member and independent curator for various art institutions and museums. Her first curatorial position was at
Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, New York in 1983. That same year, Gould co-founded
Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine, devoted to global, cutting-edge music and
sound art, with artist
Joseph Nechvatal and Carol Parkinson, director of
Harvestworks. Gould was a curator and program coordinator for PS 1 (now
MoMA PS1), in charge of their National and International Studio Program from 1984 to 1986. She was the American Curatorial Coordinator for
Documenta 8 in 1987 and then served as curator of exhibitions at the
Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University from 1988 through 1992. During her tenure at Wexner, exhibitions ranged from a one-person exhibition on
Kiki Smith to In Black and White: Dress from the 1920s to Today, in an installation designed by French interior designer
Andrée Putman. Some of Gould's independent curatorial projects include: the (1992) site-specific installation Kawamata Project on
Roosevelt Island; a collaborative building project with artist
Vito Acconci and architect
Steven Holl at New York City's
Storefront for Art and Architecture (1993) and The Music Box Project, a commission of 17 music boxes by contemporary artists in collaboration with the 100-year-old Swiss music box company Reuge (1994). From 1994 to 1999, Gould served as executive director of
Artists Space, by giving architects
Greg Lynn,
UN Studio/
Ben van Berkel and
Caroline Bos,
Galia Solomonoff, Toshiko Mori and designer
J. Abbott Miller their first one-person exhibitions. Other highlights of her time at Artists Space include an exhibition and publication on the History of Squat Theatre and a comprehensive 25th anniversary book in tandem with an exhibition with
Laurie Anderson. In 1999 Gould was appointed Director of Philadelphia's
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia,
University of Pennsylvania where she served until 2011. During Claudia's tenure as Director, the ICA initiated multiple programs to integrate themselves within the academic and civic community of the University, such as Writing Through Art and Culture with the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing and
Kelly Writers House. As the ICA's Director, Gould organized the first museum surveys of artists
Lisa Yuskavage,
Charles LeDray and Polly Apfelbaum, an exhibition by graphic designer
Stefan Sagmeister and brought a major retrospective to the institution on the work of fashion designer
Rudi Gernreich, in an installation by architects
Coop Himmelb(l)au. Exhibitions presented by the team at the ICA under Gould's leadership demonstrated a continuous integration of design, fashion and popular culture in a contemporary art setting. Highlights include a 36-institution, citywide initiative called “The Big Nothing”; a retrospective of the work of
Barry Le Va; a survey of the work of
Karen Kilimnik, Ensemble, a commissioned exhibition curated by
Christian Marclay;
Rodney Graham: A Little Thought; Intricacy, curated by architect and theorist Greg Lynn; Dirt on Delight: Impulses that Form Clay, significant work in clay by 22 artists spanning four generations; Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn and Chicago's Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954-1968, an exhibition on Jazz pioneer, bandleader, mystic, philosopher, and Afro-Futurist,
Sun Ra and his ensemble; the first U.S. solo museum exhibition for Mexican artist Damián Ortega; the first U.S. solo museum exhibition for
Trisha Donnelly; and a survey focusing on
Maira Kalman’s work as illustrator an co-founder of M&Co.
The New York Times wrote of the ICA during Claudia Gould’s tenure, “On a surprisingly regular basis, the Institute of Contemporary Art mounts exhibitions that make the contemporary art adventures of many larger museums look blinkered, timid and hidebound.” At ICA, she tripled the museum's exhibition schedule, the staff, and the budget, from $1 million to $3.1 million. 2011 and became until mid-2023 succeeding
Joan Rosenbaum. == Publications ==