OMAHA, NEB.- Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts has hired Rachel Adams as Chief Curator and Director of Programs to establish the overall curatorial voice and strategy of its Exhibition Program and direct all aspects of Bemis Center’s renowned international Residency Program. Adams was previously the Senior Curator of Exhibitions for the University at Buffalo Art Galleries in Buffalo, NY. Her areas of research are varied but include a focus on the crossover between contemporary art and architecture, performance, video and new media practices.

"We are thrilled to have Rachel Adams join the Bemis family to lead the vision and execution of our core year-round programs," said Chris Cook, Bemis Executive Director. "After a highly competitive international search, Rachel's philosophical approach to working with artists, vast experience organizing exhibitions and involving community and inspiring energy made her the perfect candidate for our organization's culture and aspirational future. She will be a great resource and leader for Bemis and for Omaha's cultural community."

Adams will oversee the organizing and mounting of 6–9 temporary exhibitions annually in tandem with exhibition staff and Bemis Center’s year-long Curator-in-Residence. With the support of the residency staff, Adams is charged with evolving the Residency Program to anticipate and respond to the ever-changing needs of current and future artists-in-residence, while ensuring the program’s ongoing reputation as a leading model for artist communities. Bemis Center’s exhibition and residency programs are contextualized, in part, by a series of diverse, thought-provoking public programs, such as knowledge-sharing workshops, panel discussions, artist lectures, film screenings, and performances, among others. The Chief Curator and Director of Programs ensures the intellectual rigor and accessibility of these programs while drawing connections to current political and socioeconomic issues.

"It is an honor to be appointed as Bemis Center's new Chief Curator and Director of Programs. I have admired Bemis from afar for many years and I look forward to advancing its artist-centric programs to the next level, alongside Bemis's dedicated staff, artists-in-residence, visiting artists, and the supportive community of Omaha," said Adams. "Fortunately I'll be in Omaha to experience this year's Benefit Art Auction and Concert and to meet 800 of the organization's nearest and dearest!"

In 2018, Adams curated Ernesto Burgos: Implications; BRACHA: Pietà—Eurydice—Medusa; and co-curated Introducing Tony Conrad: A Retrospective, the first posthumous exhibition of Tony Conrad’s work at the University at Buffalo Art Galleries with the Albright Knox Art Gallery. Her 2017 exhibition, Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, Journeys 1967–2017—a 50-year survey of artists performing in the landscape—was awarded grants from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts with a catalogue by MIT Press. She has worked with artists including Amie Siegel, Ragnar Kjartansson, Kambui Olujimi, Brendan Fernandes, Amanda Browder, John Grade, Claire Ashley and Alyssa Pheobus Mumtaz. Her writing has been included in exhibition catalogues Introducing Tony Conrad: A Retrospective, Out of Easy Reach, Prospect.3 New Orleans, and Texas Prize 2012 as well as in Afterimage, artforum.com, Art Papers, Art Practical, Modern Painters and Texas Architect. Forthcoming curatorial projects include solo exhibitions with Jillian Mayer, Lui Shtini and Maya Dunietz. She is an alumnus of the 2016 ICI Curatorial Intensive in New Orleans and the 2016 Artis Curatorial Research Trip to Israel. Adams holds an MA in Exhibition and Museum Studies from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.