Jayme McLellan is a curator, gallery director, photographer, and human rights activist based in Washington, DC. Getting her start at D.C. Arts Center, for twelve years McLellan has organized and curated exhibitions in the United States and abroad that support the vision of the artist. She is the founder of Civilian Art Projects, a gallery in DC that represents emerging artists and produces artist directed projects such as exhibitions, film and music events, panel discussions on the role of the artist in society, and large-scale exhibitions presented internationally. She organized her first exhibition in 1996.
Founding Civilian Art Projects in 2006, McLellan sought to create a gallery to support talented, unrepresented artists in Washington, DC and to create a venue to mentor and support creative expression. To that end, Civilian sells artwork to sustain the artists' career and the arts center, supports the creation of artwork, and hosts and partners with community members on exciting and important events geared toward supporting art and artists. Today, Civilian operates a 1,300 square foot exhibition space containing two galleries and an office that contains "The Shop", a curated store selling the work of local designers and artists.
In one year, Civilian has presented the work of one hundred and eleven artists based in D.C. and elsewhere. This number does not include the 14 artists whose work is displayed in "The Shop." In one year, Civilian was invited to participate in the Scope Miami Art Fair and has partnered or collaborated with: the Corcoran College of Art & Design on a poetry reading and the presentation of its 23rd annual print portfolio, Washington Project for the Arts to curate Art Night at Hickok Cole Architects, Transformer gallery on a panel for emerging collectors, Meat Market Gallery on Performance Week, G Fine Art on the exhibition Civilian at G, The Warehouse on Civilian's first exhibition "Dynamic Field," Curator's Office on the exhibition "craigslist", Douz & Mille on a secret project, Provisions Library on an event for Darfur with the Honorable Donald Payne (D-NY), The Pink Line Project and DCist on a panel about emerging collectors and "Exposed," an exhibition for emerging photographers, the D.C. Public School System on an exhibition done by school children about Darfur, the Guerilla Film Club on a happy hour, the Hosiery to present three artists from San Francisco traveling the country, ArtCade Magazine to present The Apes and The Show is The Rainbow at the Bobby Fisher Memorial, Panache Booking to present HEALTH and Yip-Yip at Civilian, the Avalon Theater to present the films Darfur Diaries and the Devil Came on Horseback, Cafe St. Ex for a discussion about Darfur, and the City Museum of Ljubljana, Slovenia and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary to present an exhibition about Darfur featuring world renowned photojournalists.
Prior to launching Civilian, McLellan was the co-director/founder (2002-2006) of the visual arts organization Transformer, a non-profit arts organization in Washington. She served as the Director of Development for the District of Columbia Arts Center (DCAC) from 1998-2001 and Director of Development and Interim Executive Director of Women & Philanthropy (2002-2006). While at DCAC she created an international exchange project for artists from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia called The Tandem Project funded by the Trust for Mutual Understanding. The project continued at Transformer resulting in exhibitions and panels about the role of the artist in society.
McLellan serves as co-curator for DARFUR/DARFUR, an international traveling exhibition on the crisis and culture of the people in Darfur, Sudan. Since 2006, the exhibition has traveled the world bringing awareness about the suffering of the people of Darfur. It has been exhibition at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the UCLA Hammer Museum, James Cohan Gallery, the Royal Ontario Art Museum, the Berlin Holocaust Museum, and many more.
McLellan was born in Washington, DC in 1970. She received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from St. Mary's College of Maryland, where she focused on creative writing and photography with Lucille Clifton, Michael Glaser, and Hilton Braithwaite. She has exhibited her artwork in Washington, DC, Richmond, VA, and New York, NY. Exhibitions curated by McLellan have been reviewed in the American Prospect, the Washington Post, the Washingtonian, DC Magazine, The Calgary Herald, and National Public Radio among others.