Catherine Li is a London-based curator who graduated from MA Culture, Criticism and Curation in 2022 from Central Saint Martins (CSM). She currently manages the UAL Professional Practice Studio and Exhibition Space at Peckham Levels. Please can you tell me a little bit about yourself?I am a London-based curator and a graduate of MA Culture, Criticism and Curation in 2022. My work centres on independent curation, with a strong focus on site-specific exhibitions, community engagement, participatory art, and digital archiving. Since early 2023, I have been managing the UAL Professional Practice Studio and Exhibition Space at Peckham Levels, where I support cross-UAL students and staff in developing and programming creative, outward-facing activities and innovative projects.
Why did you choose to study MA Culture, Criticism and Curation at Central Saint Martins (CSM)?During my undergraduate studies in art history and curating, I developed a strong interest in curation and exhibition-making. However, at that time, my experience with curatorial practice and collaborative projects was quite limited—something I was eager to expand.
When I found the MA Culture, Criticism and Curation course on UAL’s website, it caught my attention quickly. It seemed both exciting and challenging, combining rigorous research development with practical, hands-on, real-world curatorial projects. It felt like the perfect fit for what I wanted to learn and explore as a curator.
What have you been working on since graduating?
Committed to experimental and diverse programming, I have introduced UK audiences to both emerging and established international artists. This approach was exemplified in my recent exhibition Afterwalls (2024) at Millbank, London, where I brought together 15 artists—all UAL alumni—ranging from graduates of the 1960s to the present, to highlight intergenerational dialogue and artistic development. In Making Expansive (2024), an international group exhibition held at the Austrian Cultural Forum London (ACF) and supported by the BMKÖS fund, I curated works by a dozen artists from Austria and the UK. This exhibition is part of the ACF Curator-in-Residency programme 2024, organised in partnership with MA CCC and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
Reimagining curatorial formats has been a core focus of my practice. During my curatorial residency at the ACF London, I launched Artist Lunch Box (2023–ongoing), a cross-cultural exchange between artists from London and Vienna. This initiative has involved over 50 artists, promoting creative collaboration across both physical and virtual platforms. My curation also extends to projects like Cad Red Closet: Performance Arts Night (2024) and Peckham Workshop Festival (2024), both held at Peckham Levels, London. Right after graduation, I co-initiated Skechibition(2022–ongoing), a role-play card game designed to deepen understanding and spark knowledge exchange about roles and power dynamics in the art industry. The game was first launched at Conway Hall Library in London and continues to evolve with different participating groups.
In addition to my independent curatorial projects, my day-to-day work at UAL Peckham Levels provides me with invaluable experience of bringing ideas to practice in a dynamic, evolving environment. I focus on connecting researchers, academic staff, and students with local communities, merging institutional influence with grassroots cultural interaction to foster a more community-oriented approach to art and space-making.
What was the most interesting project you worked on during your time on the course?
One of the most fascinating projects I worked on during MA CCC was School of Cyborg (SoC), my second group project with a team of five. It was a hybrid online and onsite initiative developed in collaboration with NEoN Digital Arts, a Dundee-based organisation. The project explored diverse themes, ranging from local to global issues and scientific research to artistic practices, all brought together in a long-term, cumulative process that stayed true to the heart of the concept despite external challenges.
The project resulted in a two-day event at the Kathryn Rattray Gallery as part of the NEoN Digital Arts Festival 2021. Because our group was dislocated across different countries, much of our collaboration happened on a shared Miro Board, which also served as a public-facing element of the project. This digital tool allowed us to document and present the entire process, offering audiences a transparent view of our research and curatorial development.
I learned so much from this practice of transparently documenting our process from scratch and opening access for audiences to view the growth of such long-term research. It made me realise that curation can take on many forms, even becoming a digital space for learning, development, and exploration.
What important piece of advice would you give to students thinking of studying this course?
Be a “bag-carrying” person.
Living in a time when information, images, and ideas from all eras are crowded together, it seems like a curator is expected to act as a mediator, a filter, or an interpreter. While studying at MA CCC provides many resources and exposure to diverse cultural landscapes, I believe it’s important to see yourself beyond these roles. I like to think of a curator as a “container”—a sack, if you will. See yourself as someone journeying with a bag, collecting ideas, stories, and objects along the way, even if the destination remains unknown. What matters is your determination to gather things worth preserving—things that reflect the paths you’ve taken, that hold the potential to grow, and that interact meaningfully with other “contents” in your bag.
This mindset of continuous curiosity and “collecting” becomes an instinctive part of your curatorial practice, shaping your ability to create connections and tell stories through your own “collection.”
What was the highlight of your Central Saint Martins (CSM) experience?
My answer to this is similar to the one about the most interesting project.
What is the most important thing you learned on the course?
I’ve learned, and continue to remind myself, that curating is a way to contribute to cultural creation, with exhibitions serving as testing grounds for innovation, research, and development—spaces that not only showcase art but also nurture and shape communities.
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