BARCELONA.- The process of the open call for the posts of Chief Curator and Head of Programming at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona has concluded with the appointment of Tanya Barson and Pablo Martínez. Ferran Barenblit, Director of MACBA since October 2015, completes his team with the incorporation of Tanya Barson as Chief Curator and Pablo Martínez as Head of Programming. Tanya Barson, former Curator of International Art at Tate Modern, will be in charge of the Collection, Exhibitions and Publications departments. Pablo Martínez, former Head of Education and Public Activities at CA2 Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, will be in charge of the MACBA Study Centre, Programme of Independent Studies (PEI), Public Programmes and Education.

They will join MACBA on 1 September 2016.

Selection process
There were 29 candidates for the two posts: 12 men and 17 women, 14 of them from abroad.

Ferran Barenblit, Director of MACBA, in agreement with the Committee of Experts, has praised Tanya Barson for ‘her intellectual ambition, her longstanding experience at Tate Modern, one of the most important museums in the world, where she contributed to the development and presentation of the Collection; and her exhaustive knowledge of post-war art, with particular interest in non-hegemonic narratives in the transition between modernity and contemporaneity’. Regarding Pablo Martínez, with whom he worked in the creation of CA2M, Barenblit has emphasised ‘his critical reflection on museums based on public attitudes; his capacity for creating new formats of contact between art and the public; and his experience as a researcher, a key faculty for planning the future of the MACBA Study Centre and PEI’. In the words of Barenblit: ‘With these new appointments, together with MACBA’s team, the Museum will be ready to face the challenges ahead with a programme of excellence and rigour, and further explore its relation to the public and its international projection.’

The Committee of Experts was formed by: Isabel Balliu i Badia, Director of Resources and Acting Manager at the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona; Carles Sala Marzal, Director of Cultural Infrastructures, Heritage and Coordination at the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona; Ferran Barenblit, Director of MACBA; and Joan Abellà Barril, General Manager of MACBA.

Biographies
TANYA BARSON (London, 1972) joined the Tate in 1997. Since 2007 she has been Curator of International Art at Tate Modern. Previously she was Curator of Exhibitions and the Collection at Tate Liverpool (2004–7).

She has curated solo exhibitions of Mira Schendel (2013), Ellen Gallagher (2007), Helio Oiticica (2007), Jake and Dinos Chapman (2006), Frida Kahlo (2005) and Assume Vivid Astro Focus (2005). Among the group exhibitions she has curated are Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic (2010), Inverting the Map: Latin American Art from the Tate Collection (2006) and the Turner Prize (2001). She was part of the organising team of Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915-2015 at the Whitechapel Art Gallery (2015).

She has developed new formats of collaboration between Tate and Latin American organisations, and initiated projects such as Sala Siqueiros in Mexico City, MALI in Lima and TEOR/éTICA in San José de Costa Rica. She is currently preparing one of the inaugural exhibitions for the opening of Tate Modern’s new building in July, dedicated to Georgia O’Keefe.

PABLO MARTÍNEZ (Valladolid, 1979) is an educator and researcher. Since 2009 he has been Head of Education and Public Activities at CA2M, where he innovated programmes such as PicNic Sessions, the Universidad Popular and Las Lindes, a research group on critical educational practices. Previously he had been Coordinator of Educational Programmes at the Museo Reina Sofía (2004–8) and Educator at the Museo Patio Herreriano. He was also Associate Professor of Contemporary Art at the Fine Arts Faculty of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2011–15).

He writes for art-agenda and is Editorial Secretary of the journal of art and visual culture Re-visiones. He is currently doing research on the funeral of Buenaventura Durruti, an investigation on the potential of images for constructing political subjectivity. He has done research residencies at Vrije University, Amsterdam (2014), Tate Britain (2008), and the Bronx Museum of the Arts (2007). Together with Vincent Meessen, he directed the 19th and 20th Image Study Days at the Comunidad de Madrid. He is co-editor, with Yayo Aznar, of Arte actual. Lecturas para un espectador inquieto and editor of the forthcoming No sabíamos lo que hacíamos. Lecturas sobre educación.