A series of transdisciplinary investigations into how collaborative and artistic approaches can change the practice and products of architecture, Architecture + Art consists of distinctly themed seasons of public conversations, involving a diverse range of the world's most significant artists, architects, urbanists, and other thinkers.

If You Build It, Will They Come? is the second chapter in the investigation, designed to critically address the instrumentalization of architecture and art as agents of urban change. The series will critique the meaning and effectiveness of the use of both disciplines as socio-economic and cultural catalysts, focusing upon newly built gallery and museum projects across the world. With the majority of these daring institutions planned in a very different economic climate, and opening as cuts to the arts are made manifest across Europe, now is the moment to examine these projects' ambitions and successes, lessons learnt and possible avenues for the future.

Marko Daniel has been curator of public programs at the Tate Modern since May 2006, and he is the curatorial point person at the Tate for the series. Most recently, Daniel has cocurated Joan Miro: The Ladder of Escape (Tate Modern, April–September, 2011) and curated a solo show of Chen Chieh-Jen at the Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester (2010). He also contributed to the catalogue for Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds (Tate Modern, 2010–11). Daniel is vice-chair of the London Consortium, a unique collaboration between the Architectural Association, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Science Museum, Birkbeck College, and the Tate.

Sarah Ichioka is director of the Architecture Foundation and codirector of the London Festival of Architecture. Previously, Ichioka was a consultant curator for the exhibition Global Cities in the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. She was exhibition content coordinator for the 10th International Venice Architecture Biennale, Cities, Architecture & Society, and she coedited the exhibition catalogue. Ichioka was also a founding research associate of the Urban Age, an interdisciplinary project investigating the future of global cities. She has served on juries including the European Prize for Urban Public Space and the Young Architect of the Year Award, and she has chaired the advisory board for the British Pavilion in Venice. Her publications include a chapter in a forthcoming book about curating contemporary architecture (MAXXI, 2011).

Justin Jaeckle is curator of public program at the Architecture Foundation, where he has worked since 2005. With a background in fine art practice from Central St Martins, Jaeckle brings interdisciplinary expertise to the Foundation's wide-ranging public program of screenings, symposia, exhibitions, and events. His curatorial work at the AF includes the exhibitions Living Architectures and At Home with Mme Le Corbusier; alternative bus tours and temporary museums for the London Festival of Architecture; and the bimonthly screenings program, Architecture on Film,in response to which he was invited to speak at the launch for UNESCO's inaugural City of Film. Jaeckle has also curated programs for the AF in multiple institutional collaborations, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Barbican Art Gallery, and the Tates, Britain and Modern. Jaeckle curated the original Architecture + Art series (2009).

The Architecture Foundation was established 8 November 1991 as Britain's first independent architecture center. The Architecture Foundation is a non-profit agency for contemporary architecture, urbanism, and culture. We cultivate new talent and new ideas. Through our diverse programs we facilitate international and interdisciplinary exchange, stimulate critical engagement amongst professionals, policy makers and a broad public, and shape the quality of the built environment. We are independent, agile, inclusive, and influential. Central to our activities is the belief that architecture enriches lives.