LEFT: COURTESY THE MENIL COLLECTION, HOUSTON; RIGHT: MARCIN J. MUCHALSKI/DIAMOND SHOT STUDIO
The Menil Collection in Houston has added Irene Mei Zhi Shum and Natalie Dupêcher to its curatorial team. Both will begin in their new positions this summer.
Shum will be the museum’s associate curator of contemporary art. Since 2007, she has worked as the curator and collections manager for the National Trust for Historic Preservation at the Philip Johnson Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, where she organized exhibitions of work by Fujiko Nakaya and Yayoi Kusama. She has also been a curatorial assistant in the Museum of Modern Art’s department of architecture and design.
Dupêcher will serve as the Menil Collection’s assistant curator of modern art. She is currently writing her dissertation on Hans Bellmer at Princeton University, where she is a doctoral candidate. Previously, she has been a research fellow at MoMA.
In a statement, Rebecca Rabinow, the museum’s director, said of the appointments, “Irene and Natalie bring important expertise that will illuminate the Menil’s holdings of modern and contemporary art and will further the Menil’s longstanding commitment to living artists.”