All posts tagged: Curator

Patricia Marroquin Norby, the Met’s First Native American Curator, Quietly Left

Patricia Marroquin Norby, the Met’s First Native American Curator, Quietly Left

Published by José Betancourt

Patricia Marroquin Norby, the first curator of Native American art ever hired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, quietly left her post in December 2025. Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York posted a job listing for a curator of Native American art to replace Norby, who had been the museum’s associate curator of Native American art since 2020.  Norby had been hired to great fanfare, as both the first person to hold the role at the Met and the first Native American to be hired as a curator by the institution. Her appointment was seen as both a watershed and as a response to criticism from various Native American tribes, who pointed to the museum’s poor documentation for many of the thousands of Native artworks and cultural objects it owns, some of which are on display in the recently opened Rockefeller Wing. Related Articles Norby’s departure was much quieter. She left the Met in December; Norby and a Met spokesperson both cited health reasons as the cause of her departure. …

Art Gallery of Ontario Deputy Director and Chief Curator Leaves

Art Gallery of Ontario Deputy Director and Chief Curator Leaves

Published by Jenni Sidey

Art Gallery of Ontario deputy director and chief curator Julian Cox will leave his post this April after eight years in the role, marking the latest departure at the Toronto museum since it became embroiled in a controversy over a failed plan to acquire a work by Nan Goldin. It was not clear whether Cox’s departure was in any way related to the Goldin controversy, which stemmed from a decision not to add a recent work to the collection following her comments on Israel’s war in Gaza. According to a Globe and Mail report, internal communications from the museum’s director, Stephan Jost, said that certain members of the acquisitions committee had found Goldin’s statements “offensive” and “antisemitic.” Related Articles Amid the incident, two members of the collection committee departed, as well as John Zeppetelli, a curator of modern and contemporary art. “I am very impressed by how strongly John Zeppetelli supported my sale and the right for artists to speak out,” Goldin told Artnet News. In a release last week, the AGO merely stated that …

Curator Diya Vij Picked as New York City’s Next Commissioner of Cultural Affairs

Curator Diya Vij Picked as New York City’s Next Commissioner of Cultural Affairs

Published by Jenni Sidey

Diya Vij, a curator and current vice president of curatorial and arts programmes at Powerhouse Arts, has been picked to be New York City’s next Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) commissioner, sources with knowledge of the pick told ARTnews. The New York Times confirmed the news on Saturday. Considered to be one of the most important jobs in the city’s arts ecosystem, the commissioner is a hotly watched role whenever a new mayor enters office. The DCA is the largest municipal funder of the arts in the US and provides funding to over 800 cultural organizations throughout the city’s five boroughs. Last fiscal year, the DCA provided $245 million in funding. Naturally, the ascension of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose wife, Rama Duwaji, is an artist, has intensified specualtion on who would be picked. Related Articles Mamdani described Vij in a statement to the Times as a “visionary and deeply thoughtful leader who understands that art is not ornamental to this city — it is essential to it.” “Under Diya’s leadership, we will fight to keep …

New Film About a Viral Finger Painting Prodigy Skewers the Art World’s Cruel Optimism

New Film About a Viral Finger Painting Prodigy Skewers the Art World’s Cruel Optimism

Published by José Betancourt

A Canadian curator and sad dad is working for a Quebecois collector in Nina Roza, a film that premiered this week at Berlinale. His rich boss is doomscrolling and stops on a viral video that shows a child prodigy finger painting in a Bulgarian barn. Her abstractions, she explains to the camera, depict the cosmos; anyone who sees them as mere paint, she says, is “dumb.” The wealthy collector shares the video with his personal curator, giddy with glee and declaring that he wants to buy one of her paintings. Our depressed curator is instantly dismissive, quipping that you simply cannot trust Bulgarians. They are so poor, he says, that they have no choice but to scam. He strongly advises getting her paintings authenticated before paying a dime; the video proves nothing. What does this Canadian curator have against Bulgarians? The film tells a story of man versus self. It turns out that the curator is a self-hating Bulgarian immigrant who hasn’t been back home in 28 years. Born Mihail but known in Canada as …

Hammer Museum Names Chief Curator, Chief of Learning and Engagement

Hammer Museum Names Chief Curator, Chief of Learning and Engagement

Published by José Betancourt

The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles announced two senior leadership appointments today: Michael Wellen will be chief curator, and Regan Pro will be chief of learning, engagement, and research, a newly created role. Wellen begins at the museum on April 6, while Pro will start on March 2. The chief curatorship at the Hammer, which oversees the museum’s contemporary art exhibitions and collection, publications, and registrar and preparator teams, has been vacant since 2023, when Connie Butler departed the museum to serve as the director of MoMA PS1 in New York. The new learning, engagement, and research role will put the Hammer’s public programming, community partnerships, and educational initiatives under one department.   Related Articles “Filling these two positions has really been my top priority since arriving at the beginning of last year,” Hammer director Zoë Ryan told ARTnews in a phone interview, noting that she spent that period “getting to know the institution to understand what was needed from these two positions.” The two roles form the museum’s leadership, alongside Ryan as director and …

Brooklyn Museum Names Robert Wiesenberger Senior Curator

Brooklyn Museum Names Robert Wiesenberger Senior Curator

Published by Jenni Sidey

Robert Wiesenberger will become the Brooklyn Museum‘s new senior curator of contemporary art, filling a post that has been vacant since in 2023. “I’m elated,” Wiesenberger said in an email to ARTnews. “I love this museum—I used to go there weekly to sketch in the galleries, in rotation with visits to the botanic garden and the public library next door. To say that Brooklyn is full of incredible artists is an understatement. I’m eager to get to know them better and make the museum feel like home for them. I’m also excited to spend time with visitors in the galleries. The energy at the museum is extraordinary, and I want to build on that.” Related Articles Wiesenberger is currently a curator of contemporary art at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where his projects have included the first museum survey for Lin May Saeed, as well as presentations for artists ranging from Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio to Kandis Williams. When he was hired by the institution, his appointment was announced by the New York Times, …

Can You Still Hack Being a Contemporary Art Curator?

Can You Still Hack Being a Contemporary Art Curator?

Published by Jenni Sidey

With a world in crisis and an art market spinning out of control, ace art-world consultants Chen & Lampert deliver a quiz full of hard choices for Art in America readers from far and wide. You landed a desirable museum job as a contemporary art curator in the mid-2000s and quickly became a power broker on the scene. Back then you sashayed into openings, boogied at afterparties, waltzed through studio visits, and grooved with young artists. A couple decades later, you have two grade-schoolers, a mortgage, and limited energy to discover what is happening in Bushwick. Can you still do your job without going out raging every night? Take this quiz to find out if you are still plugged in or ready for hair plugs. Related Articles 1. You try to reference a contemporary artist in a panel talk but instead blurt out: a) Seth Priceb) Charlie Kirkc) Luigi Mangione 2. A junior curator suggests a survey exhibition of artists born after 2000. You think: a) Maybe my kid can be in itb) Are you familiar with a similar …

Just Above Midtown Curator Dies at 73

Just Above Midtown Curator Dies at 73

Published by José Betancourt

Kathleen Goncharov, a curator whose work included organizing shows for Just Above Midtown gallery, died at her home in Boca Raton, Florida, of natural causes on December 31. She was 73 years old.  Goncharov served as senior curator at the Boca Raton Museum of Art in Florida from 2012 until she retired in 2025. She had previously worked as a curator at institutions throughout the US, curated exhibitions from Rio de Janeiro to Bologna and Rome, and served as the commissioner of the US Pavilion for the Venice Biennale in 2003, which that year took the form of an exhibition of Fred Wilson, “Speak of Me as I Am,” about the historical and contemporary role of Black people in Venice for the American pavilion. Related Articles “It was a great pleasure working with Kathleen Goncharov during my 11-year tenure at the Boca Raton Museum of Art,” said Irvin Lippman, who was the executive director from 2014 until 2025. “She had a fabulous curatorial eye that underscored my favorite comment ever made about our art installations — …

Istanbul Biennial Ends Early After Curator Resigns

Istanbul Biennial Ends Early After Curator Resigns

Published by Jenni Sidey

The current Istanbul Biennial, an ambitious three-part show that recently completed its opening exhibnition, will not stage its remaining programming because the biennial’s curator, Christine Tohmé, resigned. The exhibition “will conclude after its first leg following Tohmé’s decision to step down due to personal circumstances,” the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), a private foundation that manages the event, said in a statement. The biennial, titled “The Three-Legged Cat,” was conceived by Tohmé as “a three-legged structure to unfold over three years,” with an academic program planned for 2026 and a second exhibition set for 2027. The first show ran from September 20 to November 23 across eight venues in Istanbul and received more than 600,000 visitors. Related Articles The 18th edition of the Istanbul Biennial—one of the world’s leading recurring contemporary art exhibitions—opened after a year-long delay prompted by a contentious shakeup of its curatorial leadership. In February 2023, the biennial’s advisory board unanimously selected Defne Ayas, now the director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, to curate the exhibition. The IKSV ultimately chose Iwona Blazwick …