Thelma Golden is the Ford Foundation director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, the world’s leading institution devoted to visual arts by artists of African descent. She began her career in 1987 as a fellow at the Studio Museum, then joined the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1988. Golden returned to the Studio Museum in 2000 as Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs, and was named director and chief curator in 2005.
Her curatorial work at the Studio Museum includes a multitude of exhibitions, notably the five-part series inaugurated by Freestyle in 2001, which spotlighted emerging Black artists. Other exhibitions include Chris Ofili: Afro Muses 1995–2005 and Black Romantic: The Figurative in Contemporary African-American Art. Under her leadership, the Studio Museum has gained renown as a global leader in contemporary art exhibition and as a cultural anchor in the Harlem community. Now, after 25 years at the museum, Golden is ushering in a new era with the construction of the institution’s first-ever purpose-built facility in its more than 50-year history.
Golden serves on the board of directors for the Barack Obama Foundation, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Mellon Foundation. In 2024, she was awarded the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal by Harvard University and the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. She was also named to TIME magazine’s TIME100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2023, she became the first curator to receive the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize.
Golden holds a BA in art history and African American studies from Smith College and has received honorary degrees from Barnard College, the City College of New York, Columbia University, Moore College of Art and Design, San Francisco Art Institute, and Smith College. She was appointed to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House by President Obama in 2010. Golden is a recognized authority on contemporary art by artists of African descent, and is an active lecturer and panelist who speaks on art and culture at national and international institutions. She also serves on the Advisory Committee for the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women initiative.
