Jared Ledesma is Curator of 20th-Century and Contemporary Art at the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA). Since joining the NCMA in 2022, Ledesma has organized exhibitions across the museum’s two campuses, including Allana Clarke: Tender, David Gilbert: Flutter, The Surrealist Impulse, and Luis-Rey Velasco. He has also secured notable works by Ruth Asawa, Gwendolyn Knight, and Irene Rice Pereira, among others, for the Museum’s collection. Ledesma held previous roles at the Akron Art Museum, where he led its curatorial department as senior curator, and at the Des Moines Art Center, where he organized the groundbreaking exhibition Queer Abstraction. At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Ledesma worked extensively with the institution’s collection and contributed to projects such as Matisse/Diebenkorn and organized the intimate exhibition Paul Klee and Rex Ray. Currently, Ledesma is working on Grace Hartigan: The Gift of Attention, a major traveling exhibition that will open at the NCMA in April 2025.

Photograph by Daniel White. 

Joanne Rogers is a curator, gallery owner, and arts advocate based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Born in Trinidad, her early experiences with storytelling, craft, and community gatherings laid the foundation for a lifelong commitment to the arts. While living in New York, Rogers began organizing free art programs in neighborhoods where school arts funding had been cut, recognizing the connection between creative access and community well-being. After relocating to Charlotte in 2010, she founded The Palette Table CLT in 2016 to mentor artists of color and provide professional opportunities. In 2020, she opened Nine Eighteen Nine Studio Gallery, a creative space focused on supporting historically excluded artists through mentorship, skills training, and exhibitions. Rogers is also a founding member of the Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Center, a hub that builds bridges between artists and the broader Charlotte-Mecklenburg community. Her 2022 ASC Emerging Creators Fellowship has further supported her mission to promote equity and visibility in the arts. Through all her work, Rogers continues to champion access, connection, and sustainability for artists across Charlotte.

Photograph by Jon Strayhorn.