The Bronx Museum of Art has appointed Shamim M. Momin as its next director and chief curator. She will begin the position in early September, succeeding Klaudio Rodriguez, who left the museum last September to lead the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Momin was most recently the director of curatorial affairs at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, where she worked from 2018 to 2024. During her tenure, she curated the group exhibition “In Plain Sight,” which looked at artists who practices address histories typically hidden from the public, and oversaw commissions by Tala Madani, Gary Simmons, Kelly Akashi, Hank Willis Thomas, Donna Huanca, Diana Al-Hadid and others.
In 2009, she co-founded Land Land (Los Angeles Nomad Department), a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that focuses on location-specific public arts committees. Between its founding and its departure in 2018, she curated over 100 commissions for more than 300 artists. Previously, she was the deputy curator of the Whitney Museum and director of the now-closed Whitney Museum, the now-closed Whitney Museum, organized more than 50 projects in Altria. She also co-curated the Whitney Biennale in 2004 and 2008.
Maming said in an interview that she was interested in seizing the directorship because she saw the Bronx Museum as “a museum that aligns with the practices and values I believe most. The Bronx Museum has always been a paradigm institution that supports the diversity of artists, the richness of the community, and the ability to enrich art, and the connection between art and art, and all people cannot access it, provide all kinds of artists, and the ability to provide all kinds of artists. In the central narrative, a space to explore their ideas.”
The Bronx Museum is undergoing a $42.9 million renovation and expansion, which is scheduled to open next year. Joseph Mizzi, the museum’s board chairman, said finding a director who can be done in the museum and think about the future of the museum is a priority for the board’s nine-member search committee.
“We are in the extension mode in symbolism and literally, so we see Shamim as someone who can take what we’ve been doing and do it more widely,” Mizzi said.
Ma Ming said that during the museum’s “real moment of change”, she was looking forward to “what can this new building do in this world.” She said the new building provides the Bronx Museum with “an opportunity to be greater in a cultural landscape of existence, influence and identity”, which can be provided through a combination of exhibitions and public programs, which can be offered in its added footprint.
Although Momin did not discuss details of her vision for the Bronx Museum, she said her experience working in Los Angeles and Seattle “building communities, as well as organizational outreach and presence in thinking about very different constituencies and communities will give you a “how we move forward to the Bronx Museum and respect the local community itself.”
For example, she pointed to her exhibition organized on land, “Allow[ed] The artist develops and realizes the idea that the museum space is uncomfortable. “But more importantly, the organization’s goal is to provide “what all communities deserve: opportunities for challenging, exciting contemporary art in daily life without barriers to accessing museums or galleries.”
Momin’s role also includes the title of chief curator, and she said that in addition to her overall strategic goals, she can also help shape the agency’s “vision, values, content” in programming. She added: “If you are working with artists who talk about labor, equality or diversity, you need to represent these values from a real attitude to the standpoint of the museum itself.”
In a challenging time for art and museums, Momin took over the Bronx Museum, which has an annual operating budget of $3.9 million that has been attacked by the Trump administration.
“I feel that’s when you have to strengthen the most,” she said. “That’s my responsibility, especially when I believe most (nonprofits, commitment to public services) and the art space that is available to the entire public. Through passion and consistency, we can continue to support this space, and we can continue to support it even in the face of other changes.”
