Asma Naeem becomes first Pakistani to lead American art museum
Asma Naeem has become the first person of Pakistani origin and person of color to lead Baltimore’s Museum of Modern Art in its 109-year-long history.
Christopher Bedford, who left the museum last year to lead the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, will be her successor.
In a statement, Naeem stated, “As we move forward, there is an incredible opportunity to bring a greater depth of local and global voices into the dialogues about the history and evolution of art, museums as community spaces, and the relationship between internal culture and external experience—and in doing so create meaningful change in the field.”
I am looking forward to collaborating with our numerous past, present, and future collaborators as well as the exceptional team here.
Naeem had a sense of humor for a curator.
The Baltimore Banner wrote in a September 2009 profile of her: When Asma Naeem learned that the portrait of then-President Donald Trump would be displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, she knew that she wanted to do something to counter the negative perception it would cause. As a result, she positioned a portrait of the late rapper Tupac Shakur, one of Baltimore’s most famous native sons, directly across from it.
