COURTESY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Thomas P. Campbell announced today that Kelly Baum has been named curator of postwar and contemporary art in the museum’s contemporary art department. Baum, who has served as curator of modern and contemporary art at the Princeton University’s Art Museum for the past five years, will begin her new position on July 1. She will be working on collection development and exhibition programming at both the Met’s main building and at its Breuer Building outpost, which is set to open next year.
Sheena Wagstaff, head of the department’s curatorial team, said in a statement, “Kelly [Baum] will join the department during this exciting period as we reconsider our programming and the visitor experience within the Met’s modern and contemporary art wing and as we look forward to the opening of The Met Breuer. We are extremely fortunate to have found in her a curator for whom research and scholarship are such high priorities. Kelly will bring with her critical thinking and curatorial integrity, as well as close relationships with artists, art historians, and donors.”
Baum, who holds a Ph.D and M.A. in art history from the University of Delaware, has organized numerous exhibitions at the Princeton University Art Museum, including the 2013 show “New Jersey as Non-Site,” for which won a Warhol Curatorial Research Fellowship. During her tenure, Baum has added more than 100 works to the museum’s permanent collection and established an international artist-in-residence program, in addition to being a founding curator of the museum’s department of modern and contemporary art. Prior to this, Baum held curatorial positions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas in Austin.