Christine O’Donnell is the founder and executive director of ShowUp, a nonprofit contemporary art space in Boston, MA. She is also a curator, art writer, consultant, and lifelong educator. To all she does, O’Donnell brings her knowledge of the commercial art world (as the founder and director of Boston’s Beacon Gallery), her decade spent as an educator, her time working in advertising/marketing, and twelve years spent living in France, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
A graduate of College of the Holy Cross, with a BA in French, O’Donnell speaks fluent French and conversational Spanish. Additionally, she holds an MA in Teaching from Tufts University, and an MA in Art History from The Open University in the UK. Her master’s thesis focused on artists’ grassroots organizations and American museum critique in the late 1960s and early 1970s. O’Donnell’s skills and knowledge as a consultant are sought out as near as the New England Sculptors Association and Temple Gallery NYC, to as far as nonprofits and galleries in Art Activism Papua New Guinea and galleries in Melbourne, Australia.
As part of O’Donnell’s international scope, she is also a partner at Very Private Gallery in Madrid, Spain. She is on the board of Boston’s independent contemporary art magazine, Boston Art Review, the Arlington International Film Festival, and a member of the advisory council at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. She is also a member of the Association of Women Art Dealers and Boston Art Dealers Association. Additionally, she trained as an appraiser with the International Society of Appraisers. O’Donnell balances her career with an active family life in the Boston area with her husband and two school-aged children.
Learn more on Instagram at @intlchristine and @showup.inc.
