Daisy Nam, the current director of Ballroom Marfa in Texas, has been hired as the new director and chief curator of the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco.
Since 2020, Nam has served at the nationally renowned Ballroom Marfa, in Marfa, Tex., first as a curator and, in 2022, as its director. She replaces the Wattis’ interim director Jeanne Gerrity, who stepped in after last year’s departure of longtime director Anthony Huberman.
As for the leap from a small town in Texas with a population of 1,788 to a large city over 400 times the size, Nam — who previously held arts positions at Harvard, Columbia University and the Guggenheim Museum in New York — isn’t too worried.
“One thing that’s really special about being in such a remote place is sharing that landscape with artists and seeing them respond to what they’re maybe not used to,” she says. “So many artists live in big cities, but it reminds me that artists respond to many different contexts. I’m sure that the artists I work with will want to respond to the city of San Francisco as well.”
In a statement, recently appointed CCA president David Howse said that Nam’s “impressive track record, deep understanding of contemporary art and commitment to artistic innovation align perfectly with the Institute’s mission. I am confident that under her guidance, the Wattis will continue to be a pivotal space for artistic exploration and discourse.
Nam comes to the Wattis during a time of transition. Later this year, the space will open in a new location as part of a CCA expansion project led by the local architecture firm Studio Gang.
The new Wattis’ size will be “clearly much smaller, footprint-wise,” than the current Wattis, which is situated blocks away from campus, Nam says. But she expects new energy to the space once it’s “in the center of art-making,” citing its new proximity to students and their studios.
As for any changes the general public can expect from Wattis’ programming under her leadership, Nam offers that the Wattis has sometimes been more conceptual than she herself will likely be once she enters the role.
“I think there’s a time and a place for that type of work. For me, though, I tend to work with artists who are more connected to the world in many ways, responding to what’s happening in the world right now,” she says. As an example, she mentions that at Ballroom Marfa currently is an installation by Guadalupe Maravilla, “and he’s working with ideas around migration in Texas.” Nam plans to continue to engage with immigration in upcoming exhibitions at the Wattis.
As for the greater Bay Area art scene, Nam is excited to join what she calls “a new chapter” in Bay Area art, with new curators, like her, who’ve moved to San Francisco. Having grown up in Los Angeles, and with a sister who went to UC Berkeley, she names the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, KADIST in San Francisco, the small Chinatown gallery Micki Meng and others as examples of the vibrant scene here.
CCA was founded in the East Bay in 1907; its alumni include Robert Arneson, Robert Bechtle, Susan O’Malley and David Ireland. It enrolls approximately 1,500 students in San Francisco’s Design District, between Potrero Hill and Mission Bay.
Nam’s first day at Wattis is April 1.
