About the Speaker

Brad Rosenstein is an internationally acclaimed exhibition curator, program producer, and cultural historian. He specializes in the visual and performing arts, film, history, and design. He has curated over 75 exhibitions internationally, produced and hosted hundreds of public programs, and has written and edited extensive publications across media. His major exhibition, Noël Coward: Art & Style, enjoyed a smash six-month run at London’s Guildhall Art Gallery and was hailed as “stunning,” “brilliant,” and “beautifully curated and insightful.” He has delivered digital experiences via platforms from YouTube to the Smartify app, ranging from virtual talks to video features.

Rosenstein has appeared as a speaker around the country, from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to Film at Lincoln Center. His recent in-person talks include Mata Hari: Dance, Death and Espionage; The Birth of the Beatles; and On Location with Erich von Stroheim. The latter kicked off the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and is a bonus feature on the DVD/Blu-ray of SFSFF/MoMA’s restoration of Foolish Wives (Flicker Alley), named one of the “Ten Best DVD/Blu-rays of 2023” by Sight and Sound and winner of the “Best Special Features” Award at Il Cinema Ritrovato 2024. He is also a popular moderator of conversations with notable cultural figures, from playwright/screenwriter Tony Kushner (live at the Herbst Theatre and broadcast nationally on public radio) to Fashion Runway’s Tim Gunn (for a sold-out crowd of 1,400 at the Castro Theatre).

Other significant projects include co-curating, writing and editing the catalogue, and delivering the keynote talk for the design exhibition Music, Magic and Flight at Bonhams in London. This project was also the subject of a major research article he co-authored (with Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva), published in both English and Russian in the Tretyakov Gallery Magazine. He has worked extensively with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in conjunction with exhibitions ranging from 17^th-century Dutch paintings to Oscar de la Renta, delivering lectures, holding a residency, and curating/hosting immersive events, installations, and performances.

For ten years Rosenstein was the Curator of Exhibitions and Programs at San Francisco’s Museum of Performance & Design, where he organized over 60 exhibitions on performing arts/media subjects. He collaborated extensively with world-class figures in arts and entertainment on a year-round schedule of exhibitions, conversations, screenings, and performances. For six years as an award-winning Program Producer for the Presidio Trust, he and his team produced up to 100 live events a year, including weekly musical performances and the “Film +” series at the restored Presidio Theatre.

In his ongoing role as a Director of The Noël Coward Archive (U.S.), he promotes international collaboration between archives, and participates in initiatives from exhibitions to digital projects that share the Coward Archive collection. He is currently Associate Curator of Public Programs at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture in San Francisco, where he conceives and produces a wide-ranging stream of arts and cultural programming.