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John Kenneth Paranada

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John Kenneth Paranada is a curator, writer and cultural leader working at the intersection of regenerative museology, contemporary art, climate research and public engagement. He is Curator of Art and Climate Change at the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia, and a researcher at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

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A 2026 Fellow of the Center for Curatorial Leadership, he leads exhibition, commissioning and publishing programmes that connect artists with scientists, educators, policymakers and communities, translating complex research into compelling public experiences and durable institutional value. His work spans programme strategy and delivery, budget stewardship, production oversight, stakeholder leadership and securing external support for major projects, including complex loans and object led research with institutions such as the British Museum, Tate, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam. His practice has been featured in ICOM Voices, The Guardian, ArtReview, The Art Newspaper, Art Monthly and Apollo, and he has spoken at international forums including CIMAM, AAMC and UNESCO.

 

Vision

 

Paranada positions the museum as a regenerative civic institution with clear public purpose, helping society navigate a changing planet. He integrates collections, contemporary practice and research, bringing past, present and future into dialogue to inform how we adapt, what we value and how we live together. He moves beyond narratives of climate despair and builds alliances that pair imagination with accountable action. In doing so, he strengthens the museum as a trusted public platform that converts research into public knowledge, advancing environmental stewardship, plural ways of sustainable living  and long term resilience for life on Earth.

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Curatorial and Museological Practice

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Paranada has curated and led landmark seasons, exhibitions, symposia, residencies, commissions and acquisitions that place art at the centre of civic and ecological renewal. Recent projects include the multi-platform seasons Planet for Our Future: How Do We Adapt to a Transforming World? (2023) and Can the Seas Survive Us? (2025). His exhibitions include A World of Water (2025), Roots of Resilience: Tesfaye Urgessa (2025), Coastal Kin: De Onkruidenier (2025), Rain Catcher (2025), Shared Seas (2025), Ivan Morison: Towards the Weird Heart of Things (2024), Sediment Spirit: The Activation of Art in the Anthropocene (2023), Claudia Martínez Garay (2023) and The Collection of Jane Ryan & William Saunders (2022), many of which have been described by international press as defining case studies in climate-focused curating. 

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Living and Interdisciplinary Projects

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His practice extends to living and interdisciplinary projects, including Ackroyd and Harvey’s Beuys’ Acorns (2007 to present) and Ivan Morison’s The Reapers (2024 to present), regenerative public sculptures co-created with farming communities that gradually decompose into organic fertiliser. These works exemplify his commitment to art as a regenerative and metabolic process.

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He has also overseen significant acquisitions, including paintings by Tesfaye Urgessa and other contemporary voices. Paranada has collaborated with, commissioned, and presented works by leading artists including Olafur Eliasson, Julian Charrière, Maggi Hambling, Josh Kline, Paul Pfeiffer, Eva Rothschild, SUPERFLEX, Pio Abad, and the Karrabing Film Collective, among others.

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Distinctions​

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Paranada’s distinctions include:​

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He has also served as a juror for the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Art & Environment Prize at MOCA LA (2024) and the Lumen Prize, Norway (2025).

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Publications

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​Paranada’s scholarship spans the edited volumes Planet for Our Future (Sainsbury Centre, 2023), Museum International: Museum Sustainabilities (Taylor & Francis, 2024) and Can the Seas Survive Us? (Kulturalis, 2025). Across these works, he explores the intersection of art, ecology and society, positioning exhibitions and museums as catalysts for planetary repair and civic imagination.

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Public Engagements

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​He has delivered keynote lectures and chaired panels at major forums including:
UNESCO (Paris, 2025), CIMAM Annual Conference (Los Angeles, 2024), AAMC Foundation Art Curators Conference (New York, 2025), Folkestone Triennial (UK, 2025), Visual Artists Ireland (Dublin, 2025), Ewha Womans University (Seoul, 2025), Nieuwe Instituut (Rotterdam, 2024), Great Northern Festival (Minnesota, 2024), and leading UK institutions including UCL, UAL, Cambridge, Southampton, Leeds and the Museums Association UK. These engagements position him at the forefront of global discourse on art, museums and climate responsibility.

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Further Reading​​​​

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Institutional Profiles

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Selected Key Conferences 

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Press & Media Coverage

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 Selected Publications & Edited Volumes​

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2015–2020 (Selected Earlier Writings)​

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  • Catching Ghosts: A Conversation, 21AM, Cultural Center of the Philippines (2022)

  • All Is Not Forgiven, 21 AM, Cultural Center of the Philippines (2022) 

  • Tie A Sting but Cut It Right in the Middle, Ateneo Art Gallery (2017) 

  • Will Nature Make a Man of Me Yet?  Dream Idea Machine (2016)

  • Curating Social Sculpture Revisited, On Curating (2015)

  • Curating in Depth Toolkit, World of Art (2015)

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John Kenneth Paranada, curator of art and climate change at the Sainsbury Centre, featured in Wikipedia and ORCID.

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