Uploaded May 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Thelma Golden is the director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, the world’s leading institution devoted to visual art by people of African descent.
Golden began her career in 1985 as an intern at the Studio Museum. In 1988, she joined the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she launched her influential curatorial practice. In 2000, she returned to the Studio Museum as deputy director for Exhibitions and Programs, a position in which she worked closely with director Lowery Stokes Sims. She succeeded Dr. Sims as director in 2005. Under her leadership, the Studio Museum has gained renown as a global leader in the exhibition of contemporary art, a center for innovative education, and a cultural anchor of the Harlem community.
Golden was appointed to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House by President Obama in 2010 and in 2015 joined the Barack Obama Foundation’s Board of Directors. She serves on the boards of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Crystal Bridges Museum.
Golden was a 2008 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. In 2015, she was named a Ford Foundation Art of Change Visiting Fellow. She received an Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence in 2016 and an Outstanding Contributions to the Arts Award from Americans for the Arts and a Groundbreaker Award from Prospect.4 New Orleans in 2017. In 2018, she was awarded a J. Paul Getty Medal. Golden has received honorary degrees from Columbia University, the City College of New York, and Smith College and a Barnard Medal of Distinction from Barnard College.
Learn more: https://www.newschool.edu/commencement/
Thelma Golden is the director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, the world’s leading institution devoted to visual art by people of African descent.
Golden began her career in 1985 as an intern at the Studio Museum. In 1988, she joined the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she launched her influential curatorial practice. In 2000, she returned to the Studio Museum as deputy director for Exhibitions and Programs, a position in which she worked closely with director Lowery Stokes Sims. She succeeded Dr. Sims as director in 2005. Under her leadership, the Studio Museum has gained renown as a global leader in the exhibition of contemporary art, a center for innovative education, and a cultural anchor of the Harlem community.
Golden was appointed to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House by President Obama in 2010 and in 2015 joined the Barack Obama Foundation’s Board of Directors. She serves on the boards of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Crystal Bridges Museum.
Golden was a 2008 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. In 2015, she was named a Ford Foundation Art of Change Visiting Fellow. She received an Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence in 2016 and an Outstanding Contributions to the Arts Award from Americans for the Arts and a Groundbreaker Award from Prospect.4 New Orleans in 2017. In 2018, she was awarded a J. Paul Getty Medal. Golden has received honorary degrees from Columbia University, the City College of New York, and Smith College and a Barnard Medal of Distinction from Barnard College.
Learn more: https://www.newschool.edu/commencement/
