This week, Bad at Sports reconnects with one of Chicago’s most beloved curators and cultural instigators Ox-Bow School of Art’s Executive Director, Shannon Stratton. From founding Threewalls to serving as Chief Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York, Stratton’s career is a masterclass in weaving together artists, audiences, and institutions.

We talk about building spaces for experimental practices, sustaining feminist and craft-centered discourse, and what it means to return to Chicago after reshaping the curatorial conversation nationally. Stratton dives into the ethics of hospitality, the politics of craft, and why sometimes the most radical thing you can do is set the table.

Recorded live at EXPO 2025 in the loving space provided by the Chicago Architectural Biennial 2025

Photo by Dominique Muñoz @domo23

 

Name-Drop

• Shannon R. Stratton - https://www.shannonraestratton.com/about

• Threewalls — https://three-walls.org/

• Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) —https://madmuseum.org/

• Haystack Mountain School of Crafts —https://www.haystack-mtn.org/

• MCA Chicago — https://mcachicago.org/

• Textile Society of America —https://textilesocietyofamerica.org/

• The Center for Craft — https://www.centerforcraft.org/

• Naomi Beckwith (curator) — https://www.guggenheim.org/about-us/staff/naomi-beckwith

• Julia Bryan-Wilson (art historian) — https://arthistory.columbia.edu/content/julia-bryan-wilson

• Jenni Sorkin (art historian) — https://arthistory.ucsb.edu/people/jenni-sorkin

• EXPO CHICAGO - https://www.expochicago.com/

• Chicago Architectural Biennial 6 - https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/