2026 Exhibition Catalogue, Sentient Earth, Amant, Brooklyn, NY. Forthcoming.
2024 “Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines,” Review, MODA Critical Review, Issue 5 (Mess), Department of Art
History and Archaeology, Columbia University, New York, NY.
2023 “Datura (Spread), 1978,” in collaboration with The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation for Robert Rauschenberg: Disparate
Visual Facts, curated by Branden W. Joseph, Frank Gallipoli Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, Columbia University,
New York, NY.
2026 “Duty Now for the Future: Reconciling with De-volution,” Presenter, UCI Visual Studies Conference 2026, University of California, Irvine, CA, April.
“Uses of Literacy: Ephemerality and Materiality of the Archive,” Presenter, Annual Bridges and Borders Conference, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, March.
“Complicating Practice: Balancing Gilbert & George and Michel Foucault,” Presenter, Annual Modernism Remodeled Transdisciplinary Conference, University of Oxford, UK, February.
Curator, Mison Kim: Then and Now and Again, The Shirley Project Space, Brooklyn, NY, May.
Curator, Meanwhile, The Shirley Project Space, Artsy, Virtual, March–Present.
Curatorial-Scholarly Consultant, Connor Wright: Alexa, Truth or Dare?, Detour Gallery, New York, NY, December 2025–January 2026.
Assistant Curator, Allison Kaufman: Smooth, Confident, Perfection, The Shirley Project Space, Brooklyn, NY, March–April.
Willoughby Thom (she/her) is a contemporary art historian, curator, and music collector based in New York City. Originally from Los Angeles, Willoughby graduated from Columbia University in 2025 with an M.A. in modern and contemporary art, critical and curatorial studies, and she received an honors B.A. in art history and French from the University of Notre Dame in 2023. Willoughby's teaching and research interests center on the intersections between art, media, and popular culture.
Willoughby has held positions at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Amant, and SiriusXM. She currently serves as the Assistant Curator at The Shirley Project Space, a gallery dedicated to showcasing innovative abstraction.
Alexa, Truth or Dare?, Detour Gallery, New York, NY (Associate Director/ Scholarly Consultant)
Spectral Evidence, The Shirley Project Space, Brooklyn, NY (Curatorial Assistant)
Smooth, Confident, Perfection, The Shirley Project Space, Brooklyn, NY (Assistant Curator)
James M. Reed Collection, Fairfield University Art Museum, Fairfield, CT (Translator)
2025
2025
2024
2022
"A New Game of Truth: The Complications of Gilbert & George and Michel Foucault," Columbia University, Master's Thesis, advised by Dr. John Rajchman Professor of Theory and Criticism, 20th-Century Art and Philosophy
2023
2025
2025
2024
2024
2023
2023
"Duty Now for the Future: Situating DEVO in Art History," Seminar Paper, Periodizing the Seventies, Columbia University
"Art Off the Record: Feminism, Pop Culture, and Sub Genres," Course Syllabus, Columbia University
"The Intimacy of Pop Culture: Jeremy Deller and Mike Kelley in Conversation," Proposed Exhibition.
2024
2024
2024
2022
Exhibition Catalog, "Homecoming," The Shirley Project Space, Brooklyn, NY
"Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines, Review," MODA Critical Review, Issue 5 (Mess), Department of Art History and Archeology, Columbia University
Exhibition Catalog, "Shadowtime," The Shirley Project Space, Brooklyn, NY
"Datura (Spread), 1978" in collaboration with The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation for "Robert Rauschenberg: Disparate Visual Facts" curated by Branden W. Joseph, Frank Gallipoli Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at Columbia University
"The Lo-Fi Archive: Jeremy Deller and the Vernacular," The University of Notre Dame, Honors Undergraduate Thesis, advised by Dr. Elyse Speaks, Professor of the Practice, Art History