Thelma Golden

Thelma Golden has been the Director and Chief Curator at The Studio Museum in Harlem since 2000. She has organized a number of exhibitions, including Chris Ofili: Afro Muses 1995-2005, Harlemworld: Metropolis as Metaphor and Black Romantic. Before her appointment, she was the Special Projects Curator for Peter and Eileen Norton, contemporary art collectors and philanthropists based in Los Angeles. Thelma was a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City from 1996-1998; Associate Curator and Director of Branch Museums from 1993-1996; and from 1991-1993 she was Director and Exhibition Coordinator at the Whitney Museum at Phillip Morris. She also conceived and organized a site-specific commissioning program and organized 18 projects with artists, including Alison Saar, Glenn Ligon, Gary Simmons, Romare Bearden, Matthew McCaslin, and Suzanne McClelland. Thelma teaches and lectures at several institutions internationally including Columbia University, Yale and the Royal College of Art in London. She is also a prolific writer and has contributed essays to various publications. Thelma holds a B.A. in Art History and African-American Studies from Smith College (1987) and Honorary Doctorates from Smith (2004) and the Moore College of Art and Design (2003). Thelma is a member of the 2008 class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute.