BOSTON (July 19, 2024)—The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), announced today two new curatorial appointments in the Department of Contemporary Art: Carmen Hermo as the Lorraine and Alan Bressler Curator of Contemporary Art and Claire Howard as the Hansjörg Wyss Curator of Modern Art. Under the direction of Ian Alteveer, Beal Family Chair, they will work within a growing department focused on the art of the 20th century to today, presented in a global context. Both Hermo and Howard will begin their new positions in September.
“I am thrilled to welcome Carmen and Claire to the MFA,” said Alteveer. “Both are curators who represent the very best in current practice. They bring fresh perspectives to the field, are known for their expansive and diverse scholarship, and they have deep commitments to a more inclusive vision of what a museum can represent on its walls and in its halls."
Hermo is currently the Associate Curator for the Brooklyn Museum’s Center for Feminist Art. Her notable exhibitions include María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold (2023–25), Baseera Khan: I Am an Archive (2021), Kameelah Janan Rasheed: Are We Reading Closely? (2020) and Roots of “The Dinner Party”: History in the Making (2017). She also formed part of the curatorial collective for Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After Stonewall (2019) as well as organized the Brooklyn presentations of Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985 (2018) and Andy Warhol: Revelation (2021), and co-curated Half the Picture: A Feminist Look at the Collection (2018). Hermo co-founded the Brooklyn Museum’s Young Leadership Council and leads the Contemporary Art Committee and Council for Feminist Art patron groups.
Previously, Hermo was Assistant Curator for Collections at the Guggenheim Museum, where she co-curated Storylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim (2015), and managed acquisitions and the Collection Online. She has also worked with the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art. Her independent projects include CURRENTS: An Overwhelming Response (A.I.R. Gallery, 2020), and New Voices: On Transformation (Print Center New York, 2023). Hermo received her bachelor’s degree in art history and English from the University of Richmond and her master’s degree in art history from Hunter College. She has been honored by Project for Empty Space with a Badass Art Woman Award.
Howard is currently Associate Curator, Collections and Exhibitions, at The University of Texas at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art. She is the curator of the upcoming exhibitions Long Live Surrealism! 1924–Today (2024) and Arshile Gorky and Isamu Noguchi: Outside In(part of In Creative Harmony: Three Artistic Partnerships, 2025). Her past exhibitions include Suzanne Bocanegra: Valley (2021), Ideas in Sensuous Form: The International Symbolist Movement (2018), Joiri Minaya: Labadee (2019), and Contemporary Projects with Lily Cox-Richard (2019) and Las Hermanas Iglesias (2022).
Howard was previously Assistant Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art at the Blanton, a Vivian L. Smith Foundation Fellow at the Menil Collection, Houston, and a Research Assistant, Modern and Contemporary Art, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Howard earned an master’s degree and doctorate in art history from The University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College. She has published widely on postwar Surrealism and its cultural contexts and contributed to publications by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and Centre Pompidou. She is a founding board member of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism.
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