The Black Curator: Activists for Representation, and Decolonization of Museums

by Kemuel Benyehudah

Overview

The Black Curator highlights the role that Black curators have long played in advocating for black artists and social changes and argues that they made a significant contribution to the democratization of museums over the last 150 years.

Drawing on oral testimonies and archival research, this book examines how black curatorial activist practices emerged as a social and imaginative response to racism across various museum contexts. Exploring the work of black curators at three different museums, Benyehudah traces a lineage from black curators in the 19th century to those currently working in curatorial roles. Analysis of these case studies and the use of ideas from museum studies, critical race theory, and art history also enable the author to demonstrate how black curatorial practice was and is distinct from Eurocentric forms of curating black art. Explaining that the black curatorial lens was used in the process of establishing counter‑archives, the author also demonstrates that it has played – and continues to play – a vital role in the decolonization of museums.

Offering compelling ways to look at the relationship between black curators and legacies of colonialism in museums, The Black Curator will be essential reading for scholars, students, and museum practitioners.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032131719
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/20/2025
Series:	Museums in Focus
Pages:	104
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kemuel Benyehudah is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an independent curator located in Detroit. His manuscript on Black curators and academic museums was recently picked up by Routledge academic press. His interests lie in the arts, music, education, museology, culture, and history. Kemuel is a research associate at the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions. He worked with the Kislak Center in curating Arthur Tress and the Japanese illustrated books. He has curated several exhibitions with the Motown Museum. He co‑juried the Progeny of Change exhibition at Brewhouse Arts in Pittsburgh. He curated Black Athena for the Sidewall Project in Pittsburgh. He recently curated the Echoes from the Rust exhibition at the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery at Wayne State University in Detroit. He worked as a research associate in supporting the Mutter Museum’s Karabots program. Kemuel is a freelance arts writer with Artblog based in Philadelphia. He graduated from Hunter College in New York with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in studio art.

Table of Contents

1. The Establishment of the Black Curatorial Lineage; 2. William H. Sheppard, re-imagining African artifacts at a Black College; 3. The Brooklyn Museum, Henry Ghent’s Militant Integration of Black Art; 4. Tufuku Zuberi, Decolonization of the Penn Museum’s Africa Gallery; 5. Fourth Wave Black Curatorial Emergence during the Black Lives Matter Era