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Laura Hoptman, Executive Director, The Drawing Center. Photo by M Seck. 

Frieze today announced a new year-round collaboration with The Drawing Center (New York), the leading museum devoted to drawing and its relationship with contemporary culture and creative thought.

As part of the partnership, The Drawing Center’s Executive Director Laura Hoptman will serve as the curatorial advisor for Spotlight at Frieze New York and Frieze Masters in London in 2019. Frieze will also make a significant annual contribution to support The Drawing Center’s mission and programs.

Building on Frieze’s history of supporting institutions through acquisition funds and non-profit spaces, the new partnership with The Drawing Center is Frieze’s first official collaboration with a museum spanning multiple fairs and with funds directly supporting the mission and programs of the partner institution.

As curatorial advisor for Spotlight, Hoptman will oversee the program dedicated to pioneers of avant-garde art from across the world, with solo presentations of significant work by overlooked figures and rarely seen practice by modern masters.

Previous curators of Spotlight include Toby Kamps (Blaffer Art Museum, Houston), Tina Kim (Tate Modern, London) and Adriano Pedrosa (MASP, São Paulo).

Loring Randolph (Artistic Director, Frieze Americas) said, “Laura Hoptman has worked at the vanguard of curatorial practice and historical criticism for three decades, and we’re thrilled to welcome her unique perspective on Spotlight. This vital new partnership with The Drawing Center, also builds on Frieze’s commitment to supporting New York’s exceptional cultural landscape, and represents a pioneering new relationship between an art fair and a museum.”

Laura Hoptman said, “I’m delighted to be working with Frieze on Spotlight, a program that I continue to find inspiring, and look forward to working with international galleries to reveal new narratives in art history. By collaborating with Frieze, I hope to extend my already in-depth research into the art of the twentieth century and also promote The Drawing Center’s mission and program to international audiences.”

Previously curator at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Hoptman has overseen landmark exhibitions by Yayoi Kusama, Isa Genzken, Henry Taylor, Bruce Conner, and Elizabeth Peyton, as well as the 54th Carnegie International at the Carnegie Museum (Pittsburgh). At The Drawing Center, she directs an unparalleled program centered around drawing across decades and genres.

As a partner of The Drawing Center, Frieze’s contribution will support the museum’s mission and programs year-round, including exhibitions; Open Sessions, a curated artist program encouraging community and collaboration; the Drawing Papers publication series; and education and public programs.