Nancy Stoaks of Park City’s Kimball Art Center wrote her thesis on artistic rabble-rouser Niki de Saint Phalle, sparking a career-long fight for the underdogs.
PARK CITY—Visiting an exhibition at the Kimball Art Center can be like consuming cakes and potions down Alice’s rabbit hole. The Park City nonprofit’s programming unleashes altered perceptions, expands and contracts realities, and reshapes how one experiences the world.
Overseeing the exhibition program with director Aldy Milliken, curator Nancy Stoaks has fueled visitors’ imaginations with unforgettable exhibitions such as Eat Me, Drink Me and Wonderland in 2022. The former was an installation by Jennifer Angus that included an elaborate dinner party scene complete with taxidermied wildlife feeding on insect carcasses, playing with our human devotion to nature’s beauty, as we’re simultaneously repulsed by possibly rabid teeth and poisonous bites.
Less Bad, curated by Milliken in 2024, featured artist Karl Haendel’s introspective exploration of masculinity in intensely personal works, both sensual and unnerving, in a response to our current paradigm-busting times. On view in 2025 and coinciding with Park City’s final rendition of the Sundance Film Festival, Stoaks curated Art In Motion, where a group of nine internationally acclaimed artists, including Spencer Finch and Matthew Barney, deconstruct film to consider its material and archetypal qualities and explore new ways of seeing.
Stoaks accentuated [Niki de Saint Phalle’s] ‘grit, fervor, and unfettered imagination.’
Since 2015, Stoaks has played a crucial role in shaping the creative direction of the Kimball, presenting high-caliber artists that inspire, and sometimes challenge, our perspectives on the most pressing issues of our society and culture. When I ask her what she values most in her curatorial practice, Stoaks says, “Through my exhibitions, I always aim to engage deeply with an artist’s work and ideas, and present something that is accessible, relevant, and impactful for our audience. An exhibition is an opportunity to be moved, to be struck, and then look at something from a new perspective.”
Contemporary art can be difficult in that conceptual work may prioritize ideas over traditional aesthetics, but it can also offer powerful opportunities to think more critically about the world around us and engage in meaningful conversation with each other. The Kimball offers a robust education program, which includes gallery talks with the curator and artists, live performances, and films. Visitors are encouraged to participate by asking questions and contributing their own ideas. Ultimately, what Stoaks loves most is sharing diverse stories through each exhibition.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Stoaks received her master’s degree in art history from the University of Washington. She wrote her thesis on the French American sculptor, painter, and filmmaker Niki de Saint Phalle, captivated by her fierce rebellion towards artistic trends and traditional gender roles. Stoaks accentuated the artist’s “grit, fervor, and unfettered imagination” when curating the 2018 exhibition Niki de Saint Phalle: Freedom Would be Mine, which continues to be a highlight of her years at the Kimball.
It was a 2002 internship at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle that solidified Stoaks’s desire to be a curator. Under the mentorship of curator Robin Held, she worked on the groundbreaking exhibition Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics. The human genome is the complete set of DNA instructions that contains all the information needed for an individual to develop and function, and it had just been fully mapped by the Human Genome Project (1990–2003).
Stoaks remembers, “There was a lot of conversation at this time around what having this information meant, the scientific possibilities and all the things that people were scared about, and this showed me how contemporary art could really respond to and add to the conversations that were out there in the real world, and that was exciting to me.” For her, the experience underscored the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, and how the museum as an institution can have a profound impact on our understanding of human life and identity.
Another formative influence on Stoaks’s career was the artist Zhi Lin, a professor at the University of Washington. Lin spent ten years developing a body of work that shed light on the forgotten contributions of Chinese laborers in the construction of the transcontinental railroad through the American West. His dedication to historical justice and storytelling left a lasting impression on Stoaks, shaping her commitment to elevating underrepresented voices and narratives through her curatorial practice. In 2019, she curated a solo exhibition of his work, Zhi Lin: “Chinaman’s Chance” on Promontory Summit.
We included a video installation where… it felt like you were right there in front of the railroad tracks.
Stoaks recalls, “We included a video installation where five tons of ballast rock were laid out before a projection of a moving train, and it felt like you were right there in front of the railroad tracks. We invited community members to write some names of the Chinese workers on pieces of ballast.” The exhibition proved to be another highlight in her career, and it was her personal connection with the artist that fortified her interest in cultural memory and the effects of gender, race, and ethnicity on labor history.
Throughout her tenure at the Kimball Art Center, Stoaks has curated a wide range of exhibitions that reflect her dedication to inclusivity and engagement. Her more recent projects include In the Shadow of the Wall (2024), which examined themes of migration and presented human stories with a curiosity and playfulness beyond border politics; and Between Life and Land (2022–2023), which explored humanity’s evolving relationship with nature and the environment in three consecutive exhibitions entitled Material, Identity, and Crisis. Through these exhibitions, Stoaks has consistently sought to create opportunities for dialogue and reflection, ensuring that the voices of lesser-known artists receive the attention they deserve.
When I ask her what she’s most excited about in 2025, Stoaks instantly brings up the Kimball’s new artist-in-residence program, and the celebrated artists who have participated thus far: Jorge Rojas, Nancy Rivera, and the interdisciplinary art collective Postcommodity. “Supporting an artist’s exploration and expansion of their creative practices, and the production of new bodies of work, is at the core of what we aim to do at the Kimball. I love that we’re building this program slowly and intentionally, giving us the space and ability to tailor the program each year to each of our participating artists, creating the kind of residency and support that will be the most beneficial for them.”
At the heart of Stoaks’s curatorial philosophy is a belief in the power of art to foster empathy, provoke thought, and inspire change. She is dedicated to creating exhibitions that challenge audiences to see the world through new perspectives, while also ensuring that the artistic voices she champions reflect the diversity and complexity of contemporary society. Through her work at the Kimball Art Center, Stoaks continues to push the boundaries of curatorial practice, striving to make art an inclusive and transformative force within the Park City community and beyond.
