Thelma Golden is the Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem.
From The Black List Project:
As a young child growing up in Queens, New York, Thelma Golden knew early in life she wanted to be a museum curator. She first learned of the role at age 12 when she read about the pioneering African-American woman curator, Lowery Sims, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Golden had her first hands-on training as a senior in high school, training as a curatorial apprentice at the Metropolitan Museum.
In 1991, Thelma took a position at the Whitney Museum of American Art, one of the nation’s premier art institutions. Golden used her position to open up the museum to previously under-represented artists including women and people of color. Her willingness to think outside the box and show artists that might not have been shown anywhere else helped put her on the national map.
See also: Thelma talking about her relationship to art and what she hopes for her legacy in 2008 (video)
See also: Thelma’s 2005 interview with Gothamist (text)
Photo credit: Gothamist
