25 Women Curators Shaking Things Up

Brian Boucher, Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Amanda de la Garza, curator at MUAC, Mexico City.

We all know that, as Beyoncé puts it, girls run the world. That's arguably especially true in the art world, where many powerful and influential art advisors, auction house specialists and dealers are all women. And then there are the curators, whose exhibitions help us to reassess established figures or bring new ones to light. Curators help build museum collections, or work independently to organize biennials and triennials, and often publish in magazines and journals as part of their portfolio.

Who is the next Helen Molesworth, recently appointed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (see Helen Molesworth Hired as Chief Curator of LA MOCA)? Who might be the future Ann Temkin, who has headed up the department of painting and sculpture at New York's Museum of Modern Art since succeeding John Elderfield in 2008?

Keep in mind, too, that the road to the director's office sometimes leads through the curatorial department. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Thomas Campbell, MoMA's Glenn Lowry, and the Walker Art Center's Olga Viso all served as curators before taking the helm of their institutions. Heads of major museums tend to be lavishly compensated men, but that's an issue for another time—see We Asked 20 Women 'Is the Art World Biased?' Here's What They Said (see also The Top 20 Art World Women of 2014 and The Most Powerful Women in Art Part One).

We polled our colleagues far and wide to come up with this roundup of 25 up-and-coming curators to watch, arranged in alphabetical order. (No such list is ever complete, so we also welcome your nominations on our Facebook page.) Maybe you'll see them heading up a department at a museum near you?

Full Text :

https://news.artnet.com/people/25-women-curators-on-the-rise-276386