Kim McAleese

Kim Therese McAleese is a Northern Ireland born curator who became the Director of the Edinburgh Art Festival in 2022. The festival exhibits art during the larger Edinburgh Festival.

Biography

McAleese was born in 1983 in Belfast. She took a one year course in Stockholm at Konstfack to study curatorship.
In 2021 she was a member of the jury for that year's Turner Prize. and Margaret Tait Award.
McAleese is the co-founder of Household, a collective curators who organise art project in Northern Ireland Household. She worked as an Associate Lecturer at University of Birmingham, and is the Vice-Chair of Outburst Arts.
She took over from Sorcha Carey in July 2022 as the director of the Edinburgh Art Festival. She was appointed too late to finesse that years festival but she had good time to prepare for the 2023 edition. The festival venues have included the Royal Botanic Garden, Jupiter Artland, the Fruitmarket, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and National Galleries of Scotland.
She is on the jury for the British Pavilion at Venice in 2024.