The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), two Bay Area institutions that are around the corner from each other, have appointed Cornelia Stokes as assistant curator of the art of the African diaspora. She will begin in the role on January 5.
The newly created position, first announced in 2023, will be shared by both museums, with Stokes working across the two institutions. The position has been endowed for its first three years by the KHR McNeely Family Foundation. At SFMOMA, Stokes will report to Jenny Gheith, curator and interim head of its Painting and Sculpture department; at MoAD, she will report Key Jo Lee, chief of curatorial affairs and public programs.
As part of her remit, Stokes will focus on mounting exhibitions and producing new scholarship on contemporary art from the Africa diaspora, including working to create collaborative exhibitions and programs between the two institutions. She will also support SFMOMA’s efforts to diversify its permanent collection. (MoAD is a non-collecting institution.)
Stokes is an independent curator who currently runs a consulting firm named Emblazon Arts LLC. She is also a curatorial consultant to the estate of artist Donald Locke and previously worked as a research assistant to artist Amy Sherald. She is the recipient of curatorial fellowships from NXTHVN, the artist residency program in New Haven, Connecticut, and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. She recently completed a residency at the Derrick Adams–founded Last Resort Artist Retreat in Baltimore.
In an email, MoAD’s CEO and executive director Monetta White told ARTnews that the joint position stems from ongoing conversations she has had with SFMOMA director Christopher Bedford “about how institutions can work together more boldly to shape the future of contemporary art.”
She continued, “While MoAD and SFMOMA are neighbors, what truly connects us is a shared commitment to serve San Francisco and advancing artists and scholarship of the African Diaspora as central to the global cultural landscape. … Through this position, we are putting MoAD’s mission into practice by placing art, artists, and scholarship of the African Diaspora at the center of the global cultural conversation, powered by partnership, shared resources, and a collective responsibility to the field.”
In a statement, Bedford added, “Telling a more expansive art history in our galleries and supporting a broad range of artistic voices and perspectives in our programming and collection is essential to our work at SFMOMA. I am energized by the opportunity to collaborate with Cornelia and MoAD to develop highly relevant and meaningful projects together.”
