Biography
Melanie Keen is Director of Iniva, an organisation that creates exhibitions, publications, education and research projects to interrogate the politics of race and global identities through the visual arts. Working in partnership is at the heart of Iniva’s programming strategy. Prior to joining Iniva in September 2015, Melanie was a senior relationship manager, in the visual arts team, at Arts Council England. Previously, Melanie was an independent curator and consultant. Her curatorial projects include Figures of Speech for Film and Video Umbrella, Oscar Muñoz: Mirror Image for Iniva, A Better Place? with Erika Tan and Melissa Bliss for the Bow Festival: 48 Hours with Jacqueline Donachie, Mary Evans, Ella Gibbs, muf, Tomoko Takahashi and Jessica Voorsanger at the Tablet Gallery, London. She was a curator at Iniva from 1997 to 2003 and projects include Janette Parris’ performance Mezzo Soprano?, Simon Tegal’s Anabiosis and Yinka Shonibare’s Diary of a Victorian Dandy She also curated Necessary Journeys, an Arts Council England project in collaboration with the BFI that included commissioning Courtney Pine to do a live film score for Borderline which was presented in the Tate Turbine Hall. She has contributed to several publications including Changing States: A Unique Anthology of Essays and Artworks Celebrating 10 Years of Iniva as well as a monograph on Faisal Abdu’Allah. She also co-wrote Recordings: a selected bibliography of contemporary African, Afro-Caribbean and Asian British art with Elizabeth Ward.