Shamim M. Momin, cofounder of the general public artwork nonprofit Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), will lead the Bronx Museum starting this September.
The museum introduced Momin’s appointment as director and chief curator on Thursday, July 8, because the establishment prepares to open its newly expanded and renovated $43.9 million South Wing within the fall of 2026. The improved wing will broaden exhibition house and add a brand new foyer and major entrance. Momin, who was born in Manhattan and raised in New York state by immigrant mother and father from India and France, was chosen by means of a nationwide search following predecessor Klaudio Rodriguez’s departure for the Museum of Tremendous Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida, final yr.
The longtime curator, who has beforehand held roles at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Artwork and Seattle’s Henry Artwork Gallery, takes the helm of the Bronx Museum within the wake of ideologically fueled funding cuts to the humanities made by the Trump administration. The Nationwide Endowment for the Arts (NEA) rescinded grants for the museum’s Okay–12 and older grownup academic packages and for a 20-artist exhibition analyzing race and gender earlier this yr, amounting to a mixed $110,000, a museum spokesperson advised Hyperallergic. The Trump administration started revoking NEA awards en masse in Could, citing divergence from the president’s coverage priorities. For a nonprofit establishment of its measurement, the museum mentioned in an announcement shared with Hyperallergic, these cuts have been “devastating.”
In an interview with Hyperallergic, Shamim approached the political second with extra optimism.
“I don’t think about it’s going to be straightforward and never with out its challenges,” she mentioned, including that now’s the time when “your duty actually takes maintain to do what you are able to do.”
Shamim added that although the NEA cuts did have an effect, the museum wasn’t as affected as different arts establishments as a result of it receives public funds as a part of New York’s Cultural Establishments Group. Town footed the overwhelming majority of the prices related to the museum’s renovation and growth, which broke floor final yr. The museum has not but introduced a selected date for the 2026 opening.
“I hope that we’ll proceed to have the ability to construct our neighborhood with people who care about it on the bottom and wish to maintain issues transferring ahead,” Shamim mentioned.
After graduating from Williams Faculty with a level in artwork historical past in 1995, Momin started her curatorial profession on the Whitney Museum, the place she co-curated the establishment’s 2004 and 2008 biennials. She based LAND in 2009 after 13 years as assistant curator on the Whitney, a dangerous transfer following the 2008 monetary crash, Momin advised Hyperallergic. On the time, she sought to create “alternatives for artists who don’t at all times match so comfortably within the establishment” to convey their work into the day-to-day lifetime of the general public.
She mentioned she selected to discovered the nonprofit in Los Angeles due to the town’s dearth of public arts organizations as in comparison with New York. Momin then served because the senior curator of the Henry Artwork Gallery in Seattle, Washington, from 2018 to 2024. Previous to her Bronx Museum appointment, Momin labored as an unbiased curator and artwork advisor.
Momin advised Hyperallergic that her priorities for her submit embody bringing her experiences linking artwork and social justice to the museum, enthusiastic about accessibility each bodily and “conceptually,” and listening to every particular person workers member’s perspective on the state of the establishment.
“One of many issues I really like concerning the Bronx Museum is it’s at all times a champion of various voices, underrepresented artists, the coincidence of artwork and social apply, social justice work,” Momin mentioned, “and that actually aligns so superbly with every thing that I care most about too.”
