MAK Center for Art and Architecture

Jia Yi Gu served as director and curator of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture from 2021 to 2024, leading the institution’s exhibitions, research initiatives, and public programs across its three historic sites, including the Schindler House, Mackey Apartments, and Fitzpatrick-Leland House. Her tenure emphasized transdisciplinary and research-driven curatorial approaches that connected art, architecture, and institutional critique, expanding the Center’s programming and elevating its public profile. During this period, she organized more than twenty exhibitions, including Schindler House: 100 Years in the Making and VALIE EXPORT: Embodied.

Her tenure at the MAK Center was driven by the question of how contemporary art can be engaged within domestic modernist spaces. Gu introduced interdisciplinary approaches to public engagement, including initiatives such as the Schindler House Companion Tours, which presented sound-based and narrative explorations of the house. She stewarded the MAK Center’s Mackey Artist-in-Residence program and, with SOM Foundation Director Iker Gil, founded the Researcher-in-Residence, broadening opportunities for architectural researchers to engage with the cultural landscape of LA. 

In addition to her curatorial and programmatic initiatives, Gu strengthened the organization’s financial foundation by building institutional reserves, bringing in the MAK Center’s first development officer, and establishing a philanthropic council to support long-term sustainability. With Verbal Visual, she developed and launched a new website to support the MAK Center's mission and outreach efforts. 

She stepped down in 2024 to Harvey Mudd College as an assistant professor of architecture.