The Armory Show named curators for its Focus and Platform sections  and also announced a new curatorial leadership summit for its 2018 fair.

Bringing together an international roster of prominent curators, the daylong summit is designed to foster “new ideas and developments within the curatorial landscape.” Naomi Beckwith, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, is serving as chair of the summit.

Next year’s Armory Show is March 8-11. In addition to presenting a new series of discussions with curators, the New York art fair is expanding its Focus and Platform programming.

The Armory Show announced Gabriel Ritter, Curator and Head of Contemporary Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), and Jen Mergel, formerly the Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as curators for the 2018 fair.

Ritter will oversee the fair’s Focus section, comprised of solo- and dual-artist presentations of new or rarely seen work by today’s most relevant and compelling artists. Mergel will develop ambitious artists projects for Platform, which debuted in 2017 as a section devoted to large-scale and site-specific artworks that respond to the fair’s vast industrial space on Piers 92 & 94.

In 2018, The Armory Show will double the size of it’s Focus section. “The growth of these curated sections and the introduction of a curatorial leadership summit reflect The Armory Show’s core identity as a place for presenting new ideas and strong curatorial viewpoints,”says Benjamin Genocchio, Executive Director of The Armory Show

“Set in the heart of the world’s art capital, The Armory Show has a unique opportunity to facilitate dialogue among international thought leaders in the curatorial profession,” notes Nicole Berry, Deputy Director of The Armory Show. “We are thrilled work with Gabe and Jen on Focus and Platform, and to inaugurate this new curatorial summit with Naomi, further developing the fair’s role as an incubator for new ideas and practices among the world’s top curators.”