Armindokht Shooshtari

She completed her MA in Photography at Nottingham Trent University and received her BA in Photography from Islamic Azad University, Iran. Her main curatorial interests include: the relationship between political situations, artistic practice and everyday life in the context of contemporary art from the Middle East and North Africa, the intersections of aesthetics and the politics of representation, in Muslim countries and Muslim communities living in the West. In her curatorial practice, Armindokht is particularly interested to unearth stories that are overlooked due to various social and political factors, to do this; she often uses found and archival materials, personal histories and socio-political narratives.

Armindokht has worked at New Art Exchange (NAE), Nottingham, as well worked as a freelance Curator in the UK and provide curatorial support to number of galleries in Iran. To date she has curated over t fifteen socially engaged interdisciplinary exhibitions in the UK, artists she has worked with in the past include: Faiza Butt, Yara El-Sherbini, Mahtab Hussain, Rawiya Collective, Bahbak Hashemi Nezhad, Feng-Ru Lee, Sunil Shah, Beverley Bennett, Juan delGado and Sarah Maple. In 2014 she was invited for a six-month residency at Derby Quad, which resulted in curating Present Perfect? Contemporary Photography from Iran, for this show Armindokht worked with nine young emerging Iranian photographs, showing their works for the first time in the UK.

She has also successfully managed and coordinated large-scale projects, including leading on partner development and tour delivery of NAE’s Strategic Touring programme. Other past projects include: coordinating the flagship NESTA Digital Arts R&D project, Culture Cloud, and managing a Mighty FINE Idea, an innovative programme of research, development and arts and cultural activity with young people in key faith communities in Nottingham.

Armindokht is currently a Relationship Manager for Arts Council England.