Sophia Yadong Hao

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Hao, Sophia Yadong

Ms

 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8158-6821
20072025

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Biography

Sophia Yadong Hao is Reader in Curatorial Practice at the University of Dundee, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Sunderland. 

Hao is Director & Principal Curator of Cooper Gallery where she leads an internationally recognised programme that has positioned Cooper Gallery as a distinctive platform in Scotland for its radical curatorial research, international approach and focus on critical inquiries in contemporary art and culture.

Hao’s research addresses contemporary art curating and visual culture. Employing a rhizomatic curatorial methodology, Hao focuses on exhibition making as a critical inquiry, Feminist ethos as curatorial method, the political potential of the curatorial, and alternative art pedagogies as a radical praxis of decolonised knowledge production.

Hao has curated contemporary art projects internationally, notably NOTES on a return (2009), a re-contextualisation of performance art from 1980s Britain; Of Other Spaces: Where Does Gesture Become Event? (2016-2017) which evoked the ethos of feminism for an alternative politics in culture and society; and CURRENT: Contemporary Art from Scotland (2015-2021) a touring programme in China interrogating contemporaneity in a global capitalist context.

Since 2021, Hao has conceived and curated The Ignorant Art School: Five Sit-ins Towards Creative Emancipation, a five phase exhibition programme examining histories and future possibilities of creative pedagogy as a radical emancipatory praxis emphasising knowledge as a collective social experience.

Founding editor of the art journal &labels and digital publication What I am Reading Now…, Hao’s noted publications include Of Other Spaces: Where Does Gesture Become Event? (2019), Hubs and Fictions: On Current Art and Imported Remoteness (2016, with Edgar Schmitz), A CUT A SCRATCH A SCORE (2015) and NOTES on a return (2010).

Hao served as a committee member of British Art Network Steering Committee (Tate Britain and Paul Mellon Centre, 2019-2022), a member of Art 360 Advisory Group (2019-2024), a member of Live Art Sector Review Steering Group (Arts Council England, 2019-2021) and a Board Member of Scottish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN 2012 – 2018).

Hao was awarded the Henry Moore Institute Research Fellowship 2014/15. In 2024 Hao was name in the List’s Hot 100; the most influential Scottish cultural contributors of 2024. 

Education/Academic qualification

MA Visual Culture

Sept 2003 → Sept 2005

Award Date: 1 Sept 2005

External positions

Fellow in Contemporary Art Theory and Curating, University of Edinburgh

Jan 2024 → Dec 2024

Advisor, AHRC’s Northern Bridge Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NBCDTP) ‘Interrogating colonialism, climate crisis and mass human migration through decolonial curating’ , Northumbria University

2024 → 2026

Visiting Professor , University of Sunderland

Sept 2022 → …

Edinburgh Art Festival Platform Selection Panel member,

2020

Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize Selection Panel Member

2020

Art 360 Scotland Advisory Committee Member

2019 → …

Live Art Sector Review Steering Committee Member

2019 → 2021

British Art Network Steering Committee Member

2019 → …

Dundee Visual Artists and Craft Makers Awards Selection Panel member, Creative Scotland

2016 → 2018

Margaret Tait Award Selection Panel Member

2016

Arts Edition North Advisory Committee Member, University of Sunderland

2015 → …

Creative Scotland Artists’ Bursaries Panel Member, Creative Scotland

2014

Scottish Contemporary Art Network Board Member

2012 → 2018

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  1. SDG 1 - No Poverty
    SDG 1 No Poverty
  2. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
  3. SDG 4 - Quality Education
    SDG 4 Quality Education
  4. SDG 5 - Gender Equality
    SDG 5 Gender Equality
  5. SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
    SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
  6. SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
    SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities
  7. SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
    SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
  8. SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
    SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production
  9. SDG 13 - Climate Action
    SDG 13 Climate Action
  10. SDG 15 - Life on Land
    SDG 15 Life on Land
  11. SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
    SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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