UMass Boston

MA, History of Art and Architecture, Boston University

BFA, Studio for Interrelated Media, Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Sam Toabe (they/them), Gallery Director of the University Hall Gallery and Director of Arts on the Point, received their M.A. in the History of Art and Architecture from Boston University in 2015. From 2013-2016, Toabe was the Assistant Director and subsequent Associate Director at Samsøñ, an internationally recognized contemporary art gallery in Boston's South End. In 2015, they held a Curatorial Fellowship at the ICA Boston, working with Eva Respini, Dan Byers, and Ruth Erikson. In the fall of 2023 and fall of 2024, they designed and taught a graduate level practicum course at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design entitled Curatorial Practices: Histories and Methods.  Their research and writing focus on alternative curatorial practices across a variety of periods and geographies (looking specifically at artist curated exhibitions and events), non-canonical art histories, and the advancement of cultural plurality in our global visual lexicons.

At UMass Boston, Toabe leads the University Hall Gallery and Arts on the Point, where they plan, organize, and produce exhibitions, public art installations, and related programs that contribute to the university’s educational mission of interdisciplinary dialogue and engagement with a diverse community on our campus and beyond. Through both programs, they seek to extend the Art & Art History Department’s pedagogical goals by expanding knowledge of contemporary art, as well as the art of the past. Toabe helps to facilitate projects organized by the department faculty, including annual presentations of student artwork as part of our Studio Art Capstone course. Each semester, they oversee a group of 3-4 Gallery Assistants – a paid, part-time, work study position which allows students to learn the inner workings of arts administration, curatorial methods, and event production. Over the past nine years, Toabe has produced over twenty-five exhibitions and dozens of free public events for the Art & Art History Department, as well as collaborated with various arts institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the ICA Boston, among others. The exhibition program has included solo-exhibitions by artists Melissa Shook, Richard Yarde, Joiri Minaya, Mohamad Hafez, and Todd Pavlisko, as well as group exhibitions that have included internationally renowned artists such as Julie Mehretu, Glenn Ligon, Jenny Holzer, Hans Haacke, and LaToya Ruby Frazier, among others.