Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd, Ph.D.
Dr. Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd is Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History and Curatorial Studies at Spelman College. Prior to that appointment, she was Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History in the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies at Duke University from 2014-2015. Beauchamp-Byrd completed a B.A. in Art History and an M.A. in Visual Arts Administration at New York University. She has also earned an M.A. in Art History from Columbia University. In 2011, she completed a Ph.D. in Art History at Duke University in the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies.
An art historian, curator, and arts administrator, she served as Interim Executive Director at the New Orleans African American Museum of Art, Culture and History (NOAAM) prior to her Visiting Assistant Professor appointment at Duke. From 2008 through 2013, she served as Assistant Professor of Art History, Department of Art, and Curator of University Art Collections at Xavier University of Louisiana. Before her appointment at Xavier, she was Assistant Professor of Museum Studies at Southern University at New Orleans. From 2005 through 2007, she was Assistant Director for Mellon Initiatives in the Research and Academic Program (RAP) at The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.
From June 1999 through July of 2001, she was Director and Curator of the Visual Arts Department at the Amistad Research Center, Tulane University in New Orleans, La. In this capacity, she oversaw the development of exhibitions and accompanying public programs of the Center’s extensive collection of 19th and 20th century African American and traditional African art, which includes works by Edward Mitchell Bannister, Elizabeth Catlett, Aaron Douglas, William H. Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, John T. Scott and Henry Ossawa Tanner.
She has had a wealth of experience within the curatorial and administrative departments of numerous cultural institutions including The Caribbean Cultural Center (NY), where she was Curator and Director of Special Projects; the Bronx Museum of the Arts; The Studio Museum in Harlem (NY); the Museum of the City of New York, and The Drawing Center (NY). At The Caribbean Cultural Center, she was curator of the exhibition Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966-1996, and developed its accompanying public programs and major catalogue. The exhibition was on view at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Caribbean Cultural Center and the Studio Museum in Harlem from October 1997 through March 1998.
Beauchamp-Byrd has served as curator of numerous exhibitions including Struggle and Serenity: The Visionary Art of Elizabeth Catlett; The Worldview of Katherine Dunham; Transcending Silence: The Life and Poetic Legacy of Audre Lorde; Africa’s Legacy: Photographs from Brazil and Peru by Lorry Salcedo-Mitrani; CUBOP! The Life and Music of Mario Bauza; Petrona Morrison and Veronica Ryan: Sculptural Works; Selections from the Aaron Douglas Collection at the Amistad Research Center; Martin Payton: Twenty Years of Sculpture; When I Am Not Here/Estoy Alla: Photographs by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons; Raised to the Trade: Creole Building Arts of New Orleans; A Celebration of Faith: Henriette Delille and the Sisters of the Holy Family; John T. Scott: Selections from the Fine Art Collections at Xavier University; Conjuring Women: Gender and Representation in the Fine Art Collections at Xavier University (part of the University’s first Women’s Studies Conference, 2012) and EPaul Julien: A Ten-Year Retrospective.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES/ACTIVITIES
Guest Editor, Thematic Update/Community Spotlight re: New Orleans, Oxford African American Studies Center (www.oxfordaasc.com), Henry Louis Gates, Editor-in-Chief (Oxford University Press, July, 2015).
Visual Arts panel, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Washington, D.C., July 2012
Visual Arts panel, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Washington, D.C., July 2010
American Masterpieces/Visual Arts Touring panel, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Washington, D.C., December 2009
Museum Creativity and Organizational Capacity panel, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Washington, D.C., July 2000
BOARD MEMBERSHIP
Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) of New Orleans, June 2010-2014;
Education Committee Chair (2011-2014).
Recent Comments