Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams Chair of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, today announced the appointment of Anita Bateman as Associate Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art. Dr. Bateman will work with Alison de Lima Greene, The Isabel Brown Wilson Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, on exhibitions, acquisitions and the display of the permanent collection, with a special focus on work by African American artists and on defining and expanding long-term collection goals.

“I am delighted to welcome Anita Bateman to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in a role that will encompass the Museum’s exhibitions, collections and programming in Modern and Contemporary Art,” said Tinterow in announcing the appointment. “Dr. Bateman’s groundbreaking work on East African photography; strong background with African-American art and artists; and teaching experience in the museum environment will all enhance the Museum’s efforts to further our longstanding commitment to the work of African American artists and artists of the African diaspora.”

Dr. Bateman earned a B.A. cum laude from Williams College in art history and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University, in art history and visual culture. She has held curatorial positions at the RISD Museum, the Williams College Museum of Art and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke. Dr. Bateman’s curatorial projects, teaching and writing have centered on modern and contemporary African art and art of the African diaspora. Among her most recent projects, she curated Black Flyyy and Defying the Shadow, two exhibitions at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum in Providence; Roots & Roads at Franklin Street Works in Stamford; and co-curated, with Carrie Mae Weems, Beyond Space at The Carr Center in Detroit. Her writing has been published in the International Review of African-American Art, in The Photographer's Green Book, and in the Journal of Black Studies.