Co-Conspiracy Means (to) Breathe Together       Co-Conspiracy Means (to) Breathe Together       Co-Conspiracy Means (to) Breathe Together      

CMBT, standing for Co-conspiracy Means (to) Breathe Together, is a collaborative curatorial initiative founded by Kara Hamilton, Patricia Ritacca, and Yan Wu in 2024.



As cancer patients and arts professionals, we are dedicated to life as art, committed to sharing site-specific contemporary art experiences that reflect our lived experiences and connect with fellow patients, caregivers, and medical teams navigating treatment journeys in healthcare spaces.

Believing in art’s power to communicate, heal, and transform, our collaboration is an experiment in creating environments where we can collectively breathe, reflect, and care for one another.


Photo by Laura Findlay, 2025.

Members


 Kara Hamilton is a Toronto-based artist and a co-director of Kunstverein Toronto. She holds a BFA from Concordia University, a BArch from UBC, and an MFA from Yale University. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and is represented by Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto. Kara had Breast Cancer (2008) and had/has Squamous Cell Carcinoma (2022, 2023, 2024).

Yan Wu is a Toronto-based curator, translator, and writer. Born and raised in Shanghai, she moved to Canada in 2001. She holds a Bachelor of Computing from the University of Guelph and a Master of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto. Beginning in fall 2024, she is pursuing a PhD on the topic of “public art as place-space” at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. Her curatorial practice explores the intersection of contemporary art, architecture, urbanism, and the making of public space, interwoven with her research, independent projects, and work as the Public Art Curator for the City of Markham. Yan was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022 and underwent treatment through 2023.Patricia Ritacca is a Toronto-based independent curator and arts educator. She is a member of Aisle 4, a curatorial collective that initiates artist projects in the public realm that respond to specific communities, geographies, and/or social issues, and Education Director at Waard Ward, a social practice arts collective that explores the intersection of newcomer engagement, floristry, and decolonial research. Patricia had Hodgkins Lymphoma (2006) and had/has Breast Cancer (2020, 2022, 2024). She is currently the Art Curator at University Health Network, The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.







Contact


For all inquiries, please email CMBT at cmbtcollective@gmail.com

Co-Conspiracy Means (to) Breathe Together
A collaborative curatorial initiative founded by Kara Hamilton, Patricia Ritacca, and Yan Wu in 2024.

About
Projects
As cancer patients and arts professionals, we are dedicated to life as art, committed to sharing site-specific contemporary art experiences that reflect our lived experiences and connect with fellow patients, caregivers, and medical teams navigating treatment journeys in healthcare spaces.

Believing in art’s power to communicate, heal, and transform, our collaboration is an experiment in creating environments where we can collectively breathe, reflect, and care for one another.




Website by Natasha Whyte-Gray, 2025.
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