The Luminary is a forum for artistic research, experimentation, and exchange. It supports artists, curators, and writers that operate at the forefront of social change. Led by Mallery and hosting independent curators, The Luminary’s model allows for sustained community conversation and space for programming to respond to current events. 


Installation view, Black Quantum Futurism, Quantum Time Capsule, 2022. On view in Adjustable Monuments, Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, Germany, (February 26–June 26, 2022). Courtesy the artists. Photo credit: Kai Werner Schmidt.

Rasheedah Phillips and Camae Ayewa of Black Quantum Futurism (BQF) serve as organizers and artists of the Spring 2023 exhibition. Community Futures: Space-Time Liberation Lab (CF:STL Lab) explores tools for community members of St. Louis to reclaim land, space, time, and memory in their neighborhoods. CF:STL Lab will be activated in collaboration with Homes for All St. Louis, Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council, and STL Artplace on the topics of spatial and temporal reparations, housing futures, tenant power, land sovereignty, and solidarity economies.

shawné michaelain holloway, Meghana Karnik, Elena Levi, and Maggie Wong will develop a convening for Fall 2023 at the intersection of their practices of design, curating, arts administration, and arts education. The program will reflect their collaborative research on a recent history of arts institution-building to understand a current condition of burnout. The produced program will launch simultaneously with a microsite that offers an interactive map of their research and collaboration. 


Installation view, Sarah Zapata: A Resilience of Things Not Seen, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI (March 1–August 28, 2022). Courtesy he artist and John Michael Kohler Arts Center. 

In all projects, Chicago-based curator Ciera McKissick is dedicated to supporting not only an artists’ practice but also to nurturing connections to build stronger arts communities. McKissick will dedicate two weeks every quarter of 2023 in St. Louis to learn about the needs of the arts ecosystem and its artists. This curatorial research will prompt an exhibition curated by McKissick in Spring 2024 that will aim to build bridges between St. Louis and the Midwest. For the Fall 2024 exhibition, Philadelphia-based curator Jameson Paige will organize a solo presentation of new work by New York-based artist Sarah Zapata, dealing with her identity as a Peruvian-American woman as it relates to evangelical and Indigenous histories. 

Kalaija Mallery is the Artistic Director of The Luminary. She is a graduate of Pacific Northwest College of Art, where she completed both her BFA in Photography and MFA with a focus on Critical Studies and Curatorial Practices. In 2017, Kalaija founded Third Room: a DIY artspace for experimental exhibitions and activations by young and underrepresented artists in Portland, OR. As a working artist and organizer, Kalaija has facilitated exhibitions and artistic projects in Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; St. Louis, MO; Springfield, IL; Chicago, IL; New York, NY; Nanjing, China; and globally, online. Her written and curatorial work has been published in MARCH International, Art in America, the Institute for Conceptual Studies, Journal.fyi, and Soft Surface Quarterly. At The Luminary, Kalaija organized KNOW/HOW books & print—a social space inside the gallery; Emerge, a professional development seminar series for artists; the renewed Arts Advisory Board for institutional feedback and support; and other resources and points of connection for local artists and creative practitioners. She serves on the board of Midwest Artist Project Services, a volunteer-led organization that provides low-cost resources for artistic professional development in the region.

Kathleen Goncharov, Boca Raton Museum of Art