Piper Fellow:
Tiffany Fairall

Tiffany is currently chief curator for Mesa Contemporary Arts (MCA) Museum at Mesa Arts Center. Fairall started as the museum’s associate curator, which evolved into a curator of exhibitions. Over the last 14 years, she has organized a variety of exhibitions that demonstrate her interest in popular culture and social commentary, most notably Flora and Fauna: Botanicals and Animals in Contemporary Art (2019); Jazz It Up! Jazz Inspired Art from Today (2019); We the People: Contemporary American Figurative Art (2018); AltRealities: The Fantastical Worlds & Creatures of Contemporary Artists (2017); Boundless: The Book Transformed in Contemporary Art (2015); Messin’ with the Masters (2013); and Beneath the Skin: Artwork Inspired by Tattoos (2008).

Before this appointment, Fairall was the curatorial assistant/assistant registrar for the ASU Art Museum, where she implemented events and programming for the Ceramics Research Center and helped manage the museum’s collection and exhibitions. Fairall holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art history as well as her B.F.A. in graphic design from Arizona State University.

Even though Fairall remains passionate about popular culture and social commentary, she would like to refocus her professional purpose and investigate how MCA Museum can provide a platform for marginalized voices and use contemporary art as a catalyst for social issues that are minimized or absent in the mainstream dialogue. Her fellowship will enable her to conduct 27 national site visits and interview various museum/art professionals from across the country who are at the forefront of fostering conversations about equity in areas of race, socioeconomic class, gender, LGBTQ, religion, and accessibility. She will pair several of the site visits with museum-focused conferences and a three-day intensive certificate workshop at National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

This fellowship is the impetus for personal growth and will serve as a networking opportunity to engage with others who have successfully transformed their institutions into sites for social action. To process and reflect on this intensive yearlong program, Fairall will conclude her fellowship with a weeklong meditative/mindfulness retreat.