Allen's curatorial focus includes contemporary art with a concentration in Canadian art and her research interests include new media art, electronic media art, socially and politically engaged art, the exhibitionary complex, and arts policy. As Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art, at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, Allen has overseen numerous exhibitions, publications and programs since 1992. She became Acting Director at the Agnes Etherington in 2012 and was appointed Director in 2014. Since she became Director, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre has won several awards, and has nearly doubled its funding from the Canada Council for the Arts. Select projects include Museopathy, Better Worlds: Activist and Utopian Projects by Artists, and Machine Life. In 2002, Allen accepted the 2002 Exhibition of the Year award from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries, as the Coordinating Curator of Museopathy. The exhibition was recognized for its innovative and multi-site exhibition of regional, national and international artists' installations. In 2009, she received an OAAG award for curatorial writing, for her chapter entitled "Working Culture" in the book Condé and Beveridge: Class Works. She was also the recipient of an educator award for her professional development of Exposures, at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in 2008. Allen joined the Board of the Ontario Association of Art Galleries in 2012. She also serves on, and has chaired, the Arts Advisory Committee of the City of Kingston, its Visual Arts Working Group, and the Advocacy Committee of the Kingston Arts Council. Allen has served on the Canada Council for the Arts Standing Peer Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions, and the Advisory Committee of the School of Image Arts, Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario.
Speculative Science, Carleton University Art Gallery, 1999. In the exhibition catalogue, Sandra Dyck examines how Allen's sculptural works evoke relationships between biological, psychological and technological aspects of identity. Other subjects discussed include Allen's work in relation to themes of biotechnology, hybridity, and cybernetics.
Terminal, Edward Day Gallery, Kingston, Ontario, 1996.
Oblivion Station, Modern Fuel Gallery, Kingston, Ontario, 1996.
"Self-destroying Postcard Worlds: The Synthetic Landscapes of Isabelle Hayeur," Prefix Photo, Issue 19, Autumn-Winter 2005.
"Letting Go: the fall in contemporary art," C Magazine, Issue 58, May–August 1998.
"Reinventing the Mega Show: Europe's first Manifesta," C Magazine, Issue 52, February–April 1997.
Awards
Allen received the OAC Exhibition Assistance Grant in 1999, 1998, 1993–1995, and 1991, respectively. From 1994 to 1995, she held the Canada Council B Grant in Visual Arts. Other awards that Allen has received include:
