Thelma Golden

Thelma Golden is the Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem. During Golden’s tenure as Chief Curator (2000 to present) and Director (2005 to present) the Studio Museum has gained international acclaim for its pioneering exhibitions by art by artists of African descent and role as a cultural anchor in the Harlem community.

From 1988-98 Golden worked at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she organized numerous groundbreaking exhibitions. Golden was appointed by the President to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House in 2010, is the 2015–16 Chair of New York City’s Cultural Institutions Group and serves on the Board of Trustees of Creative Time. She was named a Ford Foundation Art of Change Visiting Fellow in 2015 and a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute in 2008.

She is a frequent lecturer, panelist, and juror at arts institutions and colleges and universities around the world. Golden received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History and African-American Studies from Smith College.