Claire Breukel at Paul Klee Museum, Bern. Photo courtesy Michael Blaser
After graduating from the University of Cape Town, Claire Breukel began her career working for the South African Center for Photography and the Association for Visual Arts, both non-profit organizations. Invited to curate the 2002 Cape Town Month of Photography biennale, she went on to curate the Vision Photography Festival and Brett Kebble Art Awards, 2003 and 2004. Introduced to Miami through the Rubell Family Collection, she took the position of Executive Director at Locust Projects, a renowned alternative non-profit. Whilst in Miami she participated in a number of art-related boards including as Vice Chair of Miami Beach Art in Public Places. Following this she became nomadic in her role as Coordinator of PUMAVision and Curator of PUMA.Creative, focusing on developing the arts specifically within Africa and the Caribbean region. Here she collaborated on numerous creative projects, including the Arts in Marrakech festival, 8th Bamako Encounters biennale, Global Caribbean symposium, Caribbean Studies Association conference, Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, Yves Behar at the Design Museum, London, Isaac Julien at the Bass Museum, Miami as well as art social networking sites creativeafricanetwork.com and creativecaribbeannetwork.com.
Breukel is an independent curator and arts writer interested in contemporary art that falls outside of conventional modes of exhibition, and often affiliated with “developing” regions. She has written for Eikon, ArtPulse, Wynwood magazine, Arte Aldia and has a weekly column on Hyperallergic.com. She has curated exhibitions in Cape Town, New York, Miami, Vienna and San Salvador.
She is currently working on an archive project www.dirtypink305.com and is the creative advisor for Miami Downtown Development Authority art program Art Days and curator for the Unscripted public art commission for Bal Harbour Village.