Grace Ebert is a writer, editor, and curator. In 2025, she co-founded the contemporary art gallery Joy Machine.

Her typical day includes writing about contemporary art and culture, editing for Colossal, sending far too many emails, and taking a very long walk near her home in Chicago. Grace also organizes workshops, curates exhibitions, interviews leading artists and designers, and spends a lot of time going down etymological rabbit holes to find the right word. She is currently writing a book about community art (forthcoming from Artisan in fall 2027) with her partner.

Since 2023, Grace has served on the board for Chicago Books to Women in Prison, a nonprofit sending books to women and trans people who are incarcerated. She is a co-curator of Prism/Prison, an art magazine connecting artists outside and inside the U.S. carceral system, that received a 2024 Envisioning Justice Grant from Illinois Humanities.

Grace enjoys teaching and has guest lectured on art and ethics at TU Delft and taught at the Loyola University of Chicago Writing Center. In a past life, she worked as a local government reporter and news producer.

Walking is her favorite sport. She is always punctual and will show up to your party exactly on time.


Selected work


Programs + events

September 24, 2025 No One Knows All It Takes gallery conversation, Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee

September 11, 2025 — No One Knows All It Takes opening reception, Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee

May 29, 2025 — Mail Ban Teach-In, Women and Children First, Chicago

May 3, 2025 — Con cariño conversation and letter-writing event, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago

March 14, 2025 — Art, Incarceration, and Interiority gallery conversation, Art Institute of Chicago


grace at colossal dot art

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