Curatorial Practice in the Virtual Space- A Creative Conversation with Fran Joy

FRAN JOY, a recipient of the Evanston Mayor’s Individual Artist of the Year Award, is known for her works depicting women’s issues and topics of social injustice. Her subjects are wide-ranging, including intimate portraiture, ethereal figures, historical portrayals, tribal imagery, scenes of violent injustice, and cosmic vistas.
Fran is a visual artist, curator, designer, and life coach who grew up in a small town in southern Illinois, but who subsequently has called New Orleans, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Evanston home, and who makes frequent visits to New York.

Fran has a depth of experience in curating. She created and curated the “Justice for Peace” exhibit for the Noyes Cultural Art Center, which included local and Chicago artists as well as ETHS art students. She produced and curated shows for the Executive Director of the Illinois Arts Alliance at the time, Ra Joy for the Chicago Home Theater Art and Music Festival. She helped curate one of Evanston’s World Lakefront festivals and the Illinois One State Art Convention for the Arts held at Evanston’s Orrington Hotel. She curated a show for Art Encounter at the three-story historic home of collectors Ra and Falona Joy in Bronzeville.

Rose Cannon of Cannon Fine Art in collaboration with Artist and Curator, Fran Joy, bought  ‘Soulworks’, a collection of art by artists of color, both renowned and emerging, to the Evanston Art Center. The group show included Black American, Creole, African, Caribbean, and Japanese artists.  The purpose of the art show was to showcase inclusion, diversity, and equity with artists of color in the creative world.