SANTA BARBARA, CALIF.- The Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara announced the hire of Ana Briz as Assistant Director and Curator of Exhibitions. Ana is a researcher, writer, and curator. Born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, she currently calls Southern California home.

The abolitionist imaginary informs her curatorial practice and research interests. Her research is situated in the field of performance, art, and visual culture in the United States, and focuses on queer, feminist, and anti-racist work by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in California. She is broadly interested in issues related to social justice, displacement, and resistance in contemporary art and culture.

“I am thrilled to join the AD&A Museum and serve the UC Santa Barbara student body," Briz says. "As a regional historian of California art and performance, I am looking forward to supporting emerging or underrepresented artists that call this place home. I am especially excited to champion radical practices such as performance or social practice that intersect California history and its diverse cultural backgrounds.”

“Given the AD&A Museum’s increased focus on the regional identity and aesthetics of the Central Coast and Southern California, the expertise that Ana brings will be an invaluable addition to the Museum,” said AD&A Museum Director, Gabriel Ritter. “Her curatorial commitment to championing work that embraces themes of social justice and resistance will very much be at home with our UCSB campus community.”

Her most recent projects and exhibitions include: Beatriz da Costa: (un)disciplinary tactics (September 7, 2024 - January 5, 2025), as curatorial assistant to curator Daniela Lieja Quintanar at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), and presented at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; Gilded Dreams (February 28 - March 31, 2024), co-curated with artist noé olivas, and presented at Crenshaw Dairy Mart Gallery; and artist Star Montana’s mural East LA Landscape (2022) for the LAC+USC Restorative Care Village, and presented by the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture. Her writing has appeared in Flash Art Magazine, AWARE (Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions), and in exhibition catalogs published by the Hammer Museum, Intellect Press, and MIT Press.

Briz is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California (USC) and holds an M.A. in Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere from USC and a B.A. in Art History from Florida International University.