Dr Cyana Madsen is a curator, cultural producer, and researcher exploring the relationship between garments, biography, and curatorial practice.
Madsen is co-founder of the experimental exhibition space, MADSEN SYLVESTER STUDIO in Ramsgate, Kent and her practice uses exhibition-making and material culture research to examine how lived experience permeates worn clothing, and how the researcher acts as a potential interrupter of this biography.
Madsen’s current research focuses on wearer and object biography, the authorship of history through worn clothing, extra-sensory collection and exhibition strategies, ethical material and immaterial (including the use of AI) practice, curatorial bias, and what I have termed “curatorial interruption”.
Current AND UPCOMING Projects
Course Leader, MA Fashion Curation and Cultural Programming (London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London)
Research Fellow, AHRC Catalyst-funded project A Museum of Uncollected Things (PI Dr Ellen Sampson, Co-PI Dr Andrew Richardson)
Producer and Host, Practice Imperfect podcast (forthcoming 2026)
Chapter The ‘Anarchy’ Shirt – Vivienne Westwood’s Biography as Egodocument in Routledge Handbook of the Sex Pistols (forthcoming 2026)
EXHIBITIONS and CURATION
Curator: London Museum, London College of Fashion Wolfson Gallery, The Horse Hospital Contributor: MoMA, OXO Bargehouse.
Collections and Archiving
The Contemporary Wardrobe Collection, Fashion and Textile Museum, London College of Fashion, London Museum, Huntsman Savile Row, Shaw Media.
Research Consultancy
Clients include Artquest, Charlotte Cotton, Penny Martin, SHOWstudio, and Dr Jane Wildgoose. Research on projects for brands including Miu Miu, Chanel Beauty, Chanel Culture Fund, Nike, and FARFETCH.
PUBLICATIONS AND PROGRAMMING
Exhibition Review ‘The World of Tim Burton, curated by Jenny He, Collaboration with Tim Burton and Adapted by Maria Mclintock, Design Museum, London, 25 October 2024–26 May 2025’ Studies in Costume & Performance
MA Fashion Curation and Cultural Programming Podcast Navigating Research (2025); Exploring Exhibition Dialogue as a Catalyst for Change (2025); Exhibiting Fashion - The Physical and Digital (2025)
Lecturing
London College of Fashion, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Art, The Courtauld, Royal College of Arts, V&A Dundee, MUDE Design Museum, Lisbon on the history and future of fashion curation and cultural programming; innovative, speculative, and extrasensory methods of collecting and exhibiting clothing and the experience of the dressed self; and critical curatorial practice.
Curriculum Development and Delivery
MA Fashion Curation and Cultural Programming (London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, 2023 - Current)
‘Cultural Programming’ Cross-disciplinary Postgraduate Elective (London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, 2025 - Current)
‘Fashion Curation and The Senses’ BA (Hons) Fashion Communication: Histories and Theories (Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, 2023; 2024)
