Christa Clarke, Senior Curator, Arts of Global Africa, Newark Museum Nomination Support Material for President, Board of Trustees

Association of Art Museum Curators & AAMC Foundation

Statement of Interest

I am both honored and excited to be nominated to lead the AAMC, an organization I have been active in and committed to since its very inception. I first became involved by serving on the Committee on Professional Standards (2003-2007) and later was Co-chair, and then Chair, of the Membership Committee (2009-2011). In 2012, I joined the Board of Trustees, serving on the Executive Committee as Vice President of Programs from 2013-2016. I have participated in our strategic planning, a result of which was the formation in 2015 of the Diversity Initiative Task Force, which I currently co-chair. I have also been active in our programs, organizing and chairing the panel, “Curatorial Practice and the Educational Turn,” for the 2015 Annual Conference, and participating in the AAMC session, “Mapping Cultural Authority: Revisionism, Provincialism, Marginalization,” at the 2012 College Art Association Annual Conference. I would very much like to continue to serve our membership, and the profession, as President of the AAMC.

Over the past 15 years, I have seen – and been part of – the growth and change of the AAMC, as we work toward becoming a more inclusive organization that serves as a professional standard- bearer. Much of my work within AAMC, and as a curator generally, has been toward the goal of inclusion and equity in representation. During my tenure leading the Membership committee, we broadened and increased membership by over 30% by reaching out to museums across the country, small and large, and encouraging curators from all fields of study to join. We also expanded our base by developing the category of independent curator. As VP of Programs, I sought to ensure that our programming was diverse and relevant to our many constituencies. I continue these efforts as co-chair of the Diversity Task Force, working to establish concrete processes and resources to increase opportunities for those underrepresented in the curatorial profession while fostering open discussion of entrenched systems of disenfranchisement. As President, I would be committed to building inclusion into our profession, working together with our membership, as well as with other organizations, to make an impact through both dialogue and action.

I would also like to strengthen ties between the curatorial profession and the academy as president of the AAMC. Since its founding, our organization has aimed to support the curatorial voice/mission within our institutions. The AAMC can also help us be better advocates for our profession within academia, serving as a resource for graduate students as they determine their future career paths and as a professional model of best practices for graduate programs in museum studies. My own introduction to the curatorial profession was as a graduate student at the University of Maryland, where an innovative museum fellowship program supported three years of training under four curators at the National Museum of African Art. As a curator for

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nearly two decades, I have remained active in academia through teaching, including courses on museology, and through reflexive scholarship on curatorial practice. Curators have a unique and valuable skillset within art historical scholarship that should be supported within our institutions as well as more broadly within the discipline. The AAMC can and should have a stronger presence in the academy, particularly in graduate art history, and curatorial studies programs that can ensure a robust and diverse pipeline for the future.

And, finally, in an era of limited resources and increasing sensitivity to issues of patrimony, collection-sharing between institutions may offer a compelling way forward. Many institutions have vast collections representing diverse geographic fields that lie in deep storage while other, typically smaller, institutions would like to expand the range of their permanent and long-term displays, or even organize temporary exhibitions, but don't have the collections to support such goals. Sharing resources between institutions can be a solution. This is, of course, not a new idea and has been put into practice, but in a limited way. One of the strengths of AAMC lies in its fostering of strong curatorial networks between institutions. I believe we can capitalize upon this organizational strength to develop a collection-sharing network, perhaps in tandem with other organizations with similar goals. While this is an ambitious goal, I would like at least to begin this conversation during my tenure as President of the AAMC.

Biography

Christa Clarke is Senior Curator, Arts of Global Africa, at the Newark Museum. Since her appointment in 2002, she has pioneered Newark’s collecting of modern and contemporary arts of Africa, building upon its important collection of historic art. Clarke has organized numerous exhibitions ranging from men's fashion to Nigerian modernism, many traveling to other venues, and stewarded several hundred acquisitions, including textiles, photography, ceramics, video, and site-specific commissions. She has also placed the arts of Africa in global context through collaboratively curated, cross-departmental exhibitions.

Clarke’s scholarship on the history of collecting and display and the politics of representation includes Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display (co- edited with Kathleen Berzock; 2010), which examines the impact of museum practice on the formation of meaning and public perception of African art. Her recent book, African Art in the Barnes Foundation (Rizzoli; 2015), received the James A. Porter and David C. Driskell Book Award for African American Art History and a First Place Award for Excellence from the AAMC in 2016. She has held fellowships at the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Clark Art Institute, and teaching appointments at NYU Abu Dhabi, University of Pennsylvania, George Washington University, Rutgers University, Purchase College, and Drew University. In addition, she was a Center for Curatorial Leadership Fellow in 2012.

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Clarke received a B.A. in art history and English literature from the University of Virginia and a M.A. and Ph.D. in African art history from the University of Maryland. At Newark, she is stewarding a multi-year, $1,000,000 curatorial capacity grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation supporting research on and access to the African art collection.

C.V./Resume

EDUCATION 1998 Ph.D., African Art History, University of Maryland

1990 M.A. (with distinction), African Art History, University of Maryland

1987 B.A., English and Art History, University of Virginia

MUSEUM EXPERIENCE Newark Museum, Newark, NJ, 2002 - present Senior Curator, Arts of Global Africa, 2013 - present Senior Curator, Arts of Africa and the Americas/Curator, Arts of Africa, 2008 - 2013 Curator, Africa the Americas and the Pacific, 2002 – 2008

Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY, 1999 - 2002 Curator of African Art, Neuberger Museum of Art, 1999 – 2002

Consulting Consultant for African art collection, Worcester Art Museum, 2014 Advisor, African Art reinstallation, Baltimore Museum of Art, 2011,2013, 2015 Advisor, African Art, Collections Assessment Project, The Barnes Foundation, 2002 – 2003 Consultant for African Art, The Barnes Foundation, 1995

TEACHING EXPERIENCE New York University – Abu Dhabi, NYC campus Visiting Faculty. Developed and taught undergraduate course, “Museums in Global Context,” January terms, 2015 – 2017

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Visiting Lecturer, Department of the History of Art. Developed and taught graduate/upper level undergraduate seminar, “The Artist in Africa,” Spring 2014

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Drew University, Madison, NJ Visiting Lecturer, Department of Art History. “Introduction to African Art,” Spring 2013

SUNY – Purchase College, Purchase, NY Adjunct Professor, Art and Art History Department. Developed and taught undergraduate courses, including “Arts of Central Africa” and “African Art and Gender,” 1999 - 2002

Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ Visiting Professor, Department of Art History: “Arts of West Africa,” Fall 1998

George Washington University, Washington, DC Visiting Lecturer, Art Department. Developed and taught graduate seminars including “The Artist in African Societies,” “African Art and Gender,” and “Primitivism in 20th Century Art,” 1994 – 1997

Corcoran School of Art, Washington, DC Visiting Lecturer, Academic Studies, “Introduction to African Art,” Fall 1994

FELLOWSHIPS Center for Curatorial Leadership, NY, 2012 Acadia Summer Arts Program (“Kamp Kippy”), Bar Harbor, ME, 2010 Clark Art Institute, Andrew W. Mellon Museum Fellow, 2009 Jayne and Morgan Whitney Fellow, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998 – 1999 Samuel H. Kress Dissertation Fellowship, 1996 - 1997 Smithsonian Institution Graduate Fellowship, 1994

AWARDS AND GRANTS (Individual and Institutional) Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) Award for Excellence. Co-First Prize for Catalogue / Publication (Institution with operating budget between $4 million and $20 million) for African Art in the Barnes Foundation, 2016

James A. Porter and David C. Driskell Book Award for African American Art History for African Art in the Barnes Foundation, 2016

Project Director, $1,000,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for curatorial support and endowment funds for Arts of Global Africa, Newark Museum, 2011 - 2016

Project Director, “African Art at the Newark Museum: Building for the Next Century,” $500,000 Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support renovation/expansion of museum’s African art galleries and establish curatorial endowment,

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2010 - 2016

Project Director, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Planning Grant, $40,000 for planning of reinstallation of African art galleries at Newark Museum, 2008 – 2009

Project Director, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Creativity Grant, $20,000 for exhibition and related symposium at Neuberger Museum of Art, SUNY – Purchase, 2001

PUBLICATIONS Books African Art in the Barnes Foundation: The Triumph of L’Art Nègre and the Harlem Renaissance New York: Skira/Rizzoli in association with the Barnes Foundation, 2015

Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display. Co-edited with Kathleen Bickford Berzock. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010

The Art of Africa: A Resource for Educators. New York: Metropolitan Museum in association with Yale University Press, 2006

Exhibition Catalogues Power Dressing: Men’s Fashion and Prestige in Africa. Newark, NJ: Newark Museum, 2005

My Ethiopia: Recent Paintings by Wosene Worke Kosrof. Purchase, NY: Neuberger Museum of Art in association with Newark Museum, 2003

A Personal Journey: Central African Art from the Lawrence Gussman Collection. Purchase, NY: Neuberger Museum of Art; distributed by University of Washington Press, 2001

The Art of Mor Faye. Washington, DC: World Bank, 1997

Essays and articles “Albert Barnes et au-delà: Un siècle de collection d’art africain aux États-Unis,” in Éclectique: Une Collection du XXie Siècle. Hélène Joubert, ed. Paris: Musée du Quai Branly, forthcoming, 2016

“Autobiography & Art: Senzeni Marasela and Lalla Essaydi,” in Global Africa. Dorothy Hodgson and Judith Byfield eds. Los Angeles: University of California Press, forthcoming, 2016

“Albert Barnes, the Barnes Foundation and African Art,” Tribal Art (Winter 2015)

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“Pigozzi in Perspective,” in Luminos/C/ity: Ordinary Joy: From the Pigozzi Contemporary African Art Collection. Exhibition catalogue. Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art, Harvard University, 2014

“Contemporary African Art and the Museum: A Roundtable,” Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art (Fall 2012)

“Expanding Africa/Remapping the Contemporary,” in Unbounded: New Art for a New Century. Newark, NJ: Newark Museum, 2009

“Uche Okeke and Chinua Achebe: Artist and Author in Conversation,” Critical Interventions, Number 1 (2007)

“Defining African Art: Primitive Negro Sculpture and the Aesthetic Philosophy of Albert Barnes,” African Arts (Spring 2003)

“From Theory to Practice: Exhibiting African Art in the 21st Century,” Art and Its Publics: Museum Studies at the Millenium, Andrew McClellan, ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003

“A Personal Journey: Central African Art from the Lawrence Gussman Collection,” African Arts 34/1 (2001)

“African Art and the Modernist Eye: Earl Horter and Collecting of African Art in the United States,” Mad for Modernism: Earl Horter and his Collection. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1998

“John Graham and the Crowninshield Collection of African Art," Winterthur Portfolio 30/1 (1996)

Reviews and Catalogue Entries Overview, Arts of Africa, and twenty entries, in Newark Museum: Selected Works. London: Scala, 2009

Catalogue entries on African art, in Gifts in Honor of the 125th Anniversary of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2003

“African Art,” Art Journal (Spring 1997): review of “Africa: The Art of a Continent,” The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

“African Art at the Barnes Foundation,” African Arts, vol. 30, no. 1 (1997)

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“African Art and Museums,” Art Journal vol. 55, no. 1 (Spring 1996): Review of Annie Coombes, Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination, 1994, and Robin Poynor, African Art at the Harn Museum: Spirit Eyes, Human Hands, 1995.

Review of “Fusion: West African Artists at the Venice Biennale,” and “Western Artists/African Art,” at The Museum for African Art, NY, in African Arts, vol. 28, no. 1 (1995).

Work in Progress Editor, Arts of Global Africa: The Newark Museum Collection. Marquand Books (forthcoming, 2017)

“Present Tense: Curating the Arts of Africa in the 21st Century,” in A Companion to Curation, eds. Brad Buckley and John Conomos. Wiley-Blackwell (forthcoming, 2017)

EXHIBITIONS (selected) 2016 Newark Stories (co-curated with Ulysses Dietz, Katherine Paul and Tricia Bloom). Newark Museum. 2015 Royals and Regalia: Inside the Palaces of Nigeria’s Monarchs. Photographs by George Osodi. Newark Museum 2015 Hassan Hajjaj: My Rockstars. Newark Museum. Additional venues: Worcester Art Museum, Memphis Brooks Museum 2012 Expanding Africa at the Newark Museum: New Vision, New Galleries. Newark Museum. 2009 Party Time: Re-Imagine America, a Centennial Commission by Yinka Shonibare MBE, Newark Museum 2009 Unbounded: New Art for a New Century (co-curated with Ulysses Dietz, Katherine Paul, and Beth Venn). Newark Museum. 2008 Embodying the Sacred in Yoruba Art: featuring the Bernard and Patricia Wagner Collection (co-curated with Carol Thompson). High Museum of Art and Newark Museum. 2008 Glass Beads of Ghana (co-curated with Suzanne Gott). Newark Museum 2006 Expanding Africa: New Art, New Directions. Newark Museum. 2006 Another Modernity: Works on Paper by Uche Okeke. Newark Museum. Additional venue: Boston University Art Gallery. 2005 Power Dressing: Men’s Fashion and Prestige in Africa. Newark Museum. Additional venues: Parrish Art Museum, NY; Museum of International Folk Art, NM; and Brooks Museum of Art, TN. 2004 Earthen Elegance: African Ceramic Vessels. Newark Museum. 2003 My Ethiopia: Recent Paintings by Wosene Worke Kosrof. Neuberger Museum of Art and Newark Museum. 2002 African Shields: Art, Power, and Identity. Neuberger Museum of Art. Additional venues: Newark Museum and the Birmingham Museum of Art.

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2001 A Personal Journey: Central African Art from the Lawrence Gussman Collection. Neuberger Museum of Art. Additional venues: Philbrook Museum, OK and National Museum of African Art, DC.

INVITED LECTURES, PANELS AND CONFERENCE TALKS (selected) 2016 “The Activist Collector: Re-covering the Story of an African American Woman in Pre- Apartheid South Africa,” Black Portraitures III: Reinventions, University of Witswatersrand, Johannesburg 2016 “Material Matters in African Art,” Princeton University Art Museum 2016 “African Art, Aesthetics and the Socially Progressive Vision of the Barnes Foundation,” Riggins Annual Lecture in Art, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 2016 “An African American in Pre-Apartheid South Africa: The Cultural Biography of a Collection,” College Art Association Annual Conference, Washington, DC 2015 Organizer and Chair, “Curatorial Practice and the Educational Turn,” Association of Art Museum Curators Annual Conference. 2015 Panelist, “Cultural Specific Curating in Institutions,” Forum organized by Koyo Kouoh, Artistic Director, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair 2014 “Collecting Beyond the Canon: An African American Encounter with pre-Apartheid South Africa,” Invited speaker for symposium at the Royal Ontario Museum 2013 “A Pioneering Vision: African Art at the Barnes Foundation,” Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2012 “Looking Back, Moving Forward: Collecting Contemporary African Art at the Newark Museum,” Bermuda National Gallery, Hamilton, Bermuda 2012 Panelist, “Mapping Cultural Authority: Revisionism, Provincialism, Marginalization,” College Art Association Annual Conference, Los Angeles 2012 “Curating a Continent: African Art at the Newark Museum,” The Walter Rodney Seminar Lecture, African Studies Center, Boston University 2011 “What Museum Directors Should Know About African Art,” Directors Forum, NYC, organized by the Art Museum Partnership 2011 “Art and Audience: Engaging Immigrant Communities at the Newark Museum,” Convegno Musei Torino 2011: da crisi a opportunita, Turin, Italy 2011 “Unbounded: Contemporary Arts of Africa in Global Dialogue,” Museum Day, 15th Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) Symposium on African Art, UCLA 2011 “Collecting Africa: American Explorer Delia Akeley and the Art of Daily Life,” 15th Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) Symposium on African Art, UCLA 2010 Invited speaker, “Ways of Showing/Ways of Knowing: African/Diaspora Arts in a Museum,” University of Wisconsin, Madison 2010 “Autobiography in the Work of Lalla Essaydi and Senzeni Marasela,” David C. Driskell Center Symposium, University of Maryland, College Park, MD. 2008 Invited speaker, Clark/Mellon Workshop on Contemporary African Art, Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA

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2007 “Making African Art Matter: Power Dressing at the Newark Museum,” American Association of Museums Annual Conference, Chicago 2007 Co-chair and presenter, “Contemporary Practices in Traditional Spaces: Creating or Challenging the Canon,” 14th Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) Symposium on African Art, Gainesville, FL 2007 Co-chair and presenter, “African Art and Visual Culture: Pedagogical Perspectives from Classroom to Museum,” College Art Association Annual Conference, NY. 2004 “Contemporary Art and African Identity: A Curator’s Perspective,” 13th Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) Symposium on African Art, Boston, MA. 2004 Co-chair, “Women, Art and Leadership in Africa,” College Art Association Annual Conference, Seattle, WA 2002 “Exhibiting Permanent Collections of African Art: Strategies and Lessons Learned,” African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC 2002 “The Barnes Foundation and African Sculpture: Uncovering a Photographic Legacy,” College Art Association Annual Conference, Philadelphia. 2001 Co-chair, “Reevaluating the Canon: African Art Studies in Historical Perspective,” 12th Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) Triennial Symposium on African Art, St. Thomas, USVI 1996 “African Art at the Barnes Foundation: The Triumph of l’Art Nègre,” College Art Association Annual Conference, Boston, MA 1995 “The `Aesthetic Argumentation’ of African Sculpture: John Graham and the Crowninshield Collection,” 10th Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) Triennial Symposium on African Art, New York, NY 1992 “Race, Gender and Sexuality in Casimir Zagourski’s Postcards of the Belgian Congo, c. 1926,” African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Boston, MA 1992 “Decorative and Symbolic Motifs on the Cross River Monoliths of the Nnam,” 9th Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) Triennial on African Art, Iowa City, IA

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) Co-chair, Diversity Initiative Task Force, 2015 – present Executive Committee (VP-Programs), 2013-16 Board Member, 2012-2016 Co-chair and Chair, Membership Committee, 2009-2011 Committee on Professional Standards, 2003-2007

Cooper Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Exhibitions and Acquisitions Committee, 2014 - present

Center for Curatorial Leadership, New York

Association of Art Museum Curators & AAMC Foundation

Selection committee for CCL Fellows, 2016 Selection committee for CCL Mellon Graduate Seminar, 2015

International Folk Art Alliance, Santa Fe, NM Selection committee, 2016

African Arts (quarterly journal published by UCLA) Consulting Editor, 2002-present Exhibition Reviews Editor (North America), 2002-2007

National Endowment for the Humanities Selection panel, Museum grants, 2009

College Art Association Museum Committee, 2011-2014

Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) Program Committee, 2011 and 2007 ACASA Triennials Board Member, 2005-2008

Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ Board Member and Member of Exhibition Review Panel, 2005-2008

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) ArtTable (New York chapter) Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) College Art Association