Marta Marsicka
they/ them

I am a curator, researcher and an art historian based in the Midlands. My curatorial interests are East-Central European identities and representation, migration and xenoracism, institutional critique, equity in UK-based art institutions. Read more about my work here.


Selected Projects:

09. 2025 - The Lilac House - Co-founder

07.03 - 11.04.24 - Curator - WRACK LINE, High Holborn, LCF UAL, London

12.2023 - Co-Curator - Spoken Worlds, British Art Network

02-06.2023 - Guest Curator - On Resilience, Migration Matters Festival, Sheffield

04.2023 - Curator - Becoming a body of water, David Kovats Gallery, London

09-12.2022 - Curator - Food Resilience, Polish Migrants Organise for Change, London

02-05.2022 - Producer - OUTCOME, BACKLIT, Nottingham

8. 06.2021- Co-Curator - Piotr Krzymowski: Major Incident, Project THIRTEEN, London

Selected Conferences and Public Speaking

03. 2026:
Made in the Middle: Panel Conversation - Panellist, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham


04. 2025:
Shaping the Future: People, Place and Practice - Panel Chair, UK New Artists, Nottingham

04. 2025: Between Stereotype and Subversion – Folk in the Practices of Contemporary Polish Artists in the UK - Panellist, Association for Art History Annual Conference, University of York

12. 2024:
Curatorial Imaginings - Panellist, British Art Network, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, UK

06.2024: Genius from the Periphery: Revisiting Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle
of Thread and Rope Exhibition
at Tate Modern, Panellist, Agents of Change: Process, Transformation, and
Decentring Art’s Histories, Summer Symposium 2024, Association for Art History, Liverpool John
Moores University, UK


Selected Writing:


Pantry by The Lilac House

10. 2025: Ill female body in practice - Notations by Malgorzata Dawidek, JAWS Journal

10.2024: GEM Artist Residency - Janhavi Sharma, BACKLIT

08.2023:

Exotic Cosmopolitanism: Magdalena Abakanowicz at Tate Modern, Art Margins


05. 2022: The Porosity of British Art, British Art Network

01.2022: For some, home is somewhere in between, British Art UnCanon


Selected Awards, Grants and Bursaries:

10.2025: John Ellerman Bursary for Clore Emerging Leaders Course

07.2025: Paul Mellon Centre Seminar Support Grant 2024

06.2024: Emerging Curators Group Legacy Fund 2023

2023-10.2029: Techne 

AHRC Doctoral Award for PhD: Representation of East-Central European women artists in the history of exhibitions in England after 1989.


06.2022: Art Trade Training and Bursary, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

12.2021-12.2022: Developing Your Creative Practice Grant, Arts Council England

10.2020-11.2021: Emerging Curators Group Bursary, TATE, British Art Network and Paul Mellon Centre  


︎ m.marsicka@gmail.com
Mark

On Resilience
Migration Matters Festival
06.2023, Sheffield

On Resilience was a programme strand platforming East-Central European creative voices. It addressed topics such as hostility, prejudice and stereotypes, as well as community support and celebration of traditions in post-Brexit Britain. The programme introduced Midlands and London based CEE creatives to Sheffield audiences and brought CEE joy, creativity and resilience to the forefront of the festival.

Migration Matters Festival is Britain’s largest festival about Sanctuary, immigration and refugees. Sheffield-based festivalcreates a platform to champion the voices of people who are so often muted, pigeon-holed into labels and rarely genuinely offered a chance to shape in the cultural and artistic landscape of the cities they live in. For seven incredible years the festival has programmed everything from internationally renowned artists, award winning companies, spectacular dance troupes and powerful community celebrations with a strong emphasis on platforming refugees and people who have experienced displacement, detention or the UK’s inhumane asylum system. This is in addition to the events where people have broken bread together at Open Iftars, played football in intercultural tournaments, made puppets, zines, shirts, learned to vogue chi, tell stories, dance and find friendships.