Rhona Sword is a researcher and curator based in Edinburgh. Through her work hosting events and audience development she became interested in further exploring the ways publics intersect/interact with contemporary art.

She began researching how we can collectively imagine the ways that care might become more deeply embedded in institutional practices.

How can more hospitable approaches to voice broaden and strengthen our understanding of cultural value?

How might this then affect public policy and funding?

How can this be supported by more a more generous vision of access requirements?

In 2022 she was awarded the Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grant as part of work to research the public reclaiming of libraries and archives of museums under the L’Internationale banner.

As part of the British Art Network's Emerging Curators Group, she aims to ask how narratives of care and labour might go beyond the artwork or exhibition, but instead can be represented and/or reflected in the methods of presentation and development. This work is supported through a period of research with BAN.

She is currently Assistant Visual Art Curator at Hidden Door Festival, and is completing a research-based postgraduate at Edinburgh University, focussing specifically on how cultural policies of access are reflected in contemporary curatorial practices.