Thelma Golden

Thelma Golden grew up in Queens, New York.[3] She had her first hands-on training as a senior in high school at the New Lincoln School, training as a curatorial apprentice at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Golden's decision to become a curator was inspired by Lowery Stokes Sims, the first African-American curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[1] She graduated from Buckley Country Day School in 1980 and earned a B.A. in Art History and African-American Studies from Smith College in 1987.[4] Golden helped put several exhibitions together at the Smith College Museum of Art as a student, including one called "Dorothy C. Miller: With an Eye to American Art", which chronicled the groundbreaking contributions of her signature ‘Americans’ exhibitions.[5] While at Smith, she worked as an intern at The Studio Museum in 1985.[3]

Golden's first curatorial position was at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1987. She was then a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art from 1988 to 1998. Golden was the visual arts director at the Jamaica Arts Center in Queens[6] before she became director of the Whitney Museum's outpost in midtown Manhattan (since closed) in 1991.[7] She organized many notable exhibitions, including the controversial 1993 Biennial,[8] directed by Elisabeth Sussman; Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary Art (1994–95);[9] Bob Thompson: A Retrospective (1998);[10] Heart, Mind, Body, Soul: New Work from the Collection (1998); and Hindsight: Recent Work from the Permanent Collection (1999).

Known for her support and championship of emerging artists, Golden created a site-specific commissioning program for the Whitney's branch museum at Altria (formerly Philip Morris), and she presented projects by meaningful artists: Alison Saar, Glenn Ligon,[1] Gary Simmons (artist), Romare Bearden, Matthew McCaslin, Suzanne McClelland, Lorna Simpson, Jacob Lawrence,[1] and Leone & MacDonald.

Golden was the Special Projects Curator for contemporary art collectors Peter Norton and Eileen Harris Norton from 1998 to 2000.[11]

Since joining the Studio Museum in 2000[1] as deputy director for exhibitions,[12] Golden has organized a number of groundbreaking exhibitions, including Isaac Julien: Vagabondia (2000); Martin Puryear: The Cane Project (2000); Glenn Ligon: Stranger (2001); the Freestyle Exhibition (2001); Black Romantic: The Figurative Impulse in Contemporary Art (2002); harlemworld: Metropolis as Metaphor (2004); Chris Ofili: Afro Muses (2005);[13] Frequency (2005–06),[1] with Christine Y. Kim; Africa Comics (2006–07); and Kori Newkirk: 1997–2007 (2007–08). In 2005 she became the Studio Museum's director and chief curator.[14] She also works to expand and strengthen the museum's presence in the local community and the global art world. The Studio Museum's visitorship has increased during her tenure as director, and a $122 million expansion is underway.[15] Designed by Adjaye Associates and Cooper Robertson, it will be the museum's first purpose-built expansion.[16][17]

First Lady Michelle Obama and Thelma Golden during a tour of the Studio Museum in Harlem, 2011.

Golden is an active guest curator, writer, lecturer, juror, and advisor. In 2009, she presented "How Art Gives Shape to Cultural Change" at the TED conference's 25th anniversary gathering in Palm Springs, California.[18] Her talk examined how contemporary artists continue to shape dialogue about race, culture, and community.[16] In 2008, she was a member of the advisory team of the Whitney Biennial[19] and in 2007 acted as a juror for the UK Turner Prize. In 2004, Golden curated a retrospective of fashion designer Patrick Kelly at the Brooklyn Museum. She then co-curated the traveling exhibition Glenn Ligon: Some Changes in 2005. Known for her interviews with contemporary artists, Golden is a frequent contributor to books, catalogues, and magazines and regularly speaks at institutions around the world as well as teaching at various universities. Golden serves on the Graduate Committee at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors,[20] is on the boards of Creative Time in New York and the Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) in London, and was a 2008 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.[20] The New York City's cultural advisory committee invited Golden to serve on their committee in 2015.[21] In 2016, Golden became a member on the board of trustees at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).[22]

In 2010, Golden was appointed to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House.[23] During Obama's presidency, in 2015,[23] Golden joined the board of directors at the Obama Foundation as she had been asked to organize the design and plan of the presidential library.[24] Golden served on the Committee for the Preservation of the White House until 2016.[25]

Golden married London-based fashion designer Duro Olowu in 2008.[26]

• 2003: Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, Moore College of Art and Design
• 2004: Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, Smith College
• 2008: Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, San Francisco Art Institute
• 2009: Honorary Doctor, City College of New York[27]
• 2010: Medal of Distinction, Barnard College[28]
• 2014: The 100 Most Powerful Women In Art #33[29]
• 2014: Top 25 most important women in the art world by Artnet[30]
• 2015: Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow
• 2016: Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence[31]
• 2017: National Arts Award for outstanding contributions to the arts, Americans for the Arts[32]
• 2017: Groundbreaker Award from Prospect.4 New Orleans[33]
• 2018: J. Paul Getty Medal, J. Paul Getty Trust[34]
• 2018: Honorary degree, Columbia University[35]
• 2019: Most Influential People In The Contemporary Artworld #7[36]

• 1990: The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s, New Museum of Contemporary Art, ISBN 9780915557684
• 1994: Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art, ABRAMS, ISBN 9780810968165
• 1998: Bob Thompson (Ahmanson-Murphy Fine Arts Book), University of California Press, ISBN 9780520212596
• 1998: Glenn Ligon: Un/Becoming, University of Pennsylvania, Institute of Contemporary Art, ISBN 9780884540861
• 1999: Carrie Mae Weems: Recent Work, 1992-1998, George Braziller, ISBN 9780807614440
• 2001: Freestyle: The Studio Museum In Harlem, Studio Museum in Harlem, ISBN 9780942949216
• 2002: Lorna Simpson (Contemporary Artists), Phaidon Press, ISBN 9780714840383

• Thelma Golden at TED