Biography
Gia M. Hamilton is known for her visionary ability to identify and cultivate support systems within communities. Gia is a curator, speaker and scholar with a social design practice who works on independent projects that center around land, labor and cultural production. Some of her notable projects include co-curating the Atlanta Biennial in 2016; developing The Urban, in 2018; a 55,000 square foot space in Overtown Miami during Art Basel with Welcome to the Afrofuture, an art activation; leading the development of the Joan Mitchell Center artist residency program from 2011-2018 and taking the helm as Executive Director and Chief Curator at the New Orleans African American Museum in 2019. Gia lives in Treme, the oldest black neighborhood in the United States with her five sons and partner.
Research
Gris Gris Lab (pronounced gree gree) originally founded in 2009, was a triplex shotgun style home intentionally centered in the Central City neighborhood in New Orleans by Gia M. Hamilton inspired by her late grandmother’s healing work. Gris Gris Lab is a creative and healing incubator for community. It takes carefully crafted products, practitioners and programs and brings them to community where people seek healing and imagination to solve today's problems. Gris Gris Lab prioritizes understanding the needs of african americans and indigenous communities who are in large part dealing with racialized stress factors on a daily basis- Gris Gris Lab creates a refuge and a place for imagination, play and possibility. When art, history, culture are combined to truly support the needs of culture bearers and artists; the relationship to tourism shifts and the power dynamics become more equitable leading to a new museum model.
