John Kenneth Paranada is the inaugural Curator of Art and Climate Change at the Sainsbury Centre, supported by the John Ellerman Foundation—the first role of its kind in a UK museum. He is also a researcher at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, where he examines how art and culture shape climate discourse, influence cultural policy, and serve as platforms for community transformation and environmental advocacy.
His research and curatorial practice explore how cultural institutions can evolve into dynamic agents of positive change. By reinterpreting museum collections as living archives of the past, present, and possible futures, his work bridges disciplines and advances interdisciplinary collaboration to address the complexities of the climate crisis and its interconnected challenges.
Paranada has collaborated with leading cultural institutions worldwide, including the British Museum (London), New Museum (New York), Nieuwe Instituut (Netherlands), NTU CCA (Singapore), Government Art Collection (UK), Fitzwilliam Museum (UK), Royal Academy of the Arts (UK), RAW Material Company (Senegal), and the Cultural Centre of the Philippines, among others. His recent curatorial projects include A World of Water (2025), Tesfaye Urgessa: Roots of Resilience (2025), Coastal Kin: De Onkruidenier (2025), Ivan Morison: Towards the Weird Heart of Things (2024), Sediment Spirit: The Activation of Art in the Anthropocene (2023), and Claudia Martinez-Garay at the Sainsbury Centre (2023).
His writing has appeared in How Can We Stop Killing Each Other? (Sainsbury Centre, 2025), Museum Sustain-abilities, Museum International (Taylor & Francis / Routledge, 2024), Why Do We Take Drugs? (Sainsbury Centre, 2024), Adaptation: A Reconnected Earth (Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila, 2023), Design for Planet (Design Council, 2022) among others. He is the co-editor of Planet for Our Future: How do we Adapt to a Transforming World? (2023) and Can the Seas Survive Us? (2025).
Prior to his tenure at the Sainsbury Centre, Ken held curatorial positions with the New Museum of Contemporary Art, Cultural Centre of the Philippines, London Design Biennale, and many other globally renowned institutions.
Ken received his Master of Fine Arts in Curating at Goldsmiths College (2017), University of London, Master of Advanced Studies in Curating at Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland (2015). He Studied Philosophy of Nature under Bruno Latour at Science Politique Paris, funded by the Institut Francais (2013). He attended the Master of Arts in Museum Studies at the University of the Philippines and a Bachelor of Arts in Philippine Studies at De La Salle University – Manila.
