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Princeton University Art Museum names Juliana Ochs Dweck as chief curator

Juliana Ochs Dweck. Photo courtesy of the Princeton University Art Museum.

The Princeton University Art Museum has appointed Juliana Ochs Dweck to be chief curator, a new role that was created because of the museum’s continued growth.

Dweck joined the Museum in 2010 and served as the museum’s Andrew W. Mellon curator of academic engagement. In her new role, she is responsible for providing intellectual and programmatic leadership for the museum’s curatorial program, including guiding a team of 11 curators, as well as curatorial and research assistants and interns. Under the leadership of the museum’s director, Dweck will work to build a culture of collaboration across diverse areas of curatorial expertise and collections, linking them to the museum’s educational activities.

James Steward, the director of the museum, said the creation of the new position and Dweck’s appointment come at a critical time in the museum’s history as it prepares for the construction and installation of a dramatically enlarged new facility being designed by Sir David Adjaye.

“Julie brings a remarkable set of talents as a scholar and leader, including a proven ability to work widely across our globe-spanning collections and foster new modes of intellectual inquiry,” Steward said. “Her demonstrated commitment to vital and engaged scholarship, diversity and inclusion will assure that we think in new ways about how an academically based museum can be a leader in the 21st century.”

Dweck received her doctorate in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge, and graduated from Yale University with a master’s and bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology. Before joining Princeton, she served in research and curatorial roles at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Dweck is the author of “Security and Suspicion: An Ethnography of Everyday Life in Israel.” Dweck’s work on materiality and culture has appeared in Anthropology Now, History and Anthropology, and The Public Historian. She has received numerous grants and awards for her research. She has curated or co-curated exhibitions at Princeton including Miracles on the Border: Retablos of Mexican Migrants to the United States, Time Capsule 1970: Rauschenberg’s Currents, Picturing Protest, and Surfaces Seen and Unseen: African Art at Princeton. She has provided interpretive leadership for more than 50 exhibitions and collections installations spanning the museum’s collections of more than 110,000 works of art.

The Princeton University Art Museum is located at the heart of the Princeton campus, a short walk from the shops and restaurants of Nassau Street. Admission is free. Museum hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Museum is closed Mondays and major holidays. Art@Bainbridge, the museum’s new gallery project dedicated to emerging contemporary artists, is located at 158 Nassau Street in downtown Princeton. Admission is free. Art@Bainbridge hours are Sunday to Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.