We are a forward-thinking curatorial office based in London
Founded in 2019, Looking Forward works internationally across contemporary art, design, and socially engaged practices. As curators and cultural producers, we bring together artists, researchers, institutions, and publics through medium and long-term projects that span exhibitions, publishing, public programming, outreach, communication and critical research.
Reimagining
curating as a tool for social and ecological repair
Looking Forward is a curatorial office and non-profit Community Interest Company based in London. Founded in 2019 by Carolina Lio, it currently includes a core team of five and an expanding distributed network of curators, cultural producers, artists and institutions with an international reach. We operate as both an independent curatorial platform and a support structure for others, offering coordination, research, programming, editorial and cultural production expertise to partners in the UK and beyond. Partnership is central to our approach. We co-design projects from the ground up, taking care of every stage of the development process with ethics and responsibility. We build alliances across disciplines, geographies, and sectors, from museums to universities, grassroots spaces to foundations. Some crucial points around our vision and mission: - Promote access, empathy, and equity in cultural work. - Produce and curate great art and ambitious projects. - Embed ethical methodologies in every stage of cultural production. - Foster environmental, social, and organisational sustainability. - Creating frameworks that support collective learning and authorship. - Merge creative practice with care, ecology, and mental wellbeing. - Build inclusive ecosystems where artists, institutions, and communities can work together towards meaningful, lasting change.
Latest News
The talk takes place during the anniversary event organised by the indigenous nursery and botanical studio Happy by Nature.
An exhibition and public session in Cape Town, resulting from a Field Kitchen activation in the Lynedoch Valley, South Africa.
Two webinars on December 3 and 10 as part of our "Funding in the Arts" series.
From Our Journal: Looking Forward - Art Notes
Published on Substack, it brings together writing on art, culture, and the conditions that shape creative life today. You’ll find news on our projects, spotlights from our network, short essays, reviews, and field notes that explore curatorial practice, cultural infrastructures and creative wellbeing.
Generative AI is becoming as familiar as minimalism has in our interior design, photography on our nights out, and readymades in and out of our fruit bowls.
The exhibition and public activation "Food for Landscapes" at Design Week South Africa marked the South African launch of our "Slow Disasters" project.
Advocating for an ecosystem where the next great scientific innovation is born in dialogue with the arts.
Lenka Clayton re-engages the blind community with Brâncuși’s untouchable sculpture.
Through the burr’s unconventional patterns and proliferation of irregular cells, each piece tells a story of the wood’s struggle, survival, and self-healing.
What does prosperity mean if not accumulation? Degrowth as a theory, a movement, and a practical framework to shift from extractive capitalism toward forms of collective sufficiency.
