New Orleans Museum of Art under fire for hiring white woman as new African art curator

The New Orleans Museum of Art has sparked outrage over its decision to hire a white woman as its new curator of African art — citing her “breadth of experience” in the field — rather than a person of color.

NOMA announced on Instagram last Friday that Amanda M. Maples landed the role as curator of its African art collection, which the museum said is considered among one of the most important in the US.

The appointment raised eyebrows from critics on the social media platform, with many wondering why the museum was unable to find a person of African descent to fill the position.

“No offense at all and congrats to her! She seems to be qualified given the brief history you all provided, but are there no African, black, or poc that can oversee endeavors like this at NOMA? user Sara Joy Carminati commented on the post.

“The efforts to showcase African history become very watered down and dampened when the very person appointed to oversee them isn’t at least a person of color and can by no means relate to the black or African experience.”

Another user, Laura Gentle, commented: “Hard to believe there were no equally qualified African American candidates, from Louisiana or the surrounding south, to hold this position.”

In response, the museum commented that it could not speak on its hiring process, but said Maples’  “breadth of experience and emphasis on sustained collaboration with artists and institutions in Africa and around the world set her apart from other candidates.”

Maples has a PhD in Visual Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz and previously served as curator of Global African Arts at the North Carolina museum of Art. She was also formerly a visiting faculty member at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Department of Art and Art History, according to NOMA.

As curator, Maples will be leading a team of museum staff to organize an upcoming exhibit at NOMA — “New Masks Now: Artists Innovating Masquerade in Contemporary West Africa” —  which is set to open in 2025.

The exhibit is a collaboration with North American and African institutions, including NOMA and the Museum of Black Civilizations in Dakar, Senegal, according to the museum.

In addition, “Maples will create new installations and interpretive strategies for the museum’s permanent collection and expand the geographic and chronological scope of the African art collection with a contemporary vision,” the museum said.

As more negative comments about the hire piled on, the museum released a statement defending Maples’ appointment:

“We’re listening closely to feedback from New Orleans residents and the public on the appointment of the museum’s new Curator of African Art. We recognize the need for NOMA’s staff and the museum field at large to represent a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. We take this priority very seriously for positions throughout the institution.

“The search to fill this post was conducted with guidance from a national consulting firm that specializes in searches in the arts,” the museum said. “Amanda Maples’ academic experience combined with her sustained relationships with organizations and artists in Africa, her work organizing groundbreaking exhibitions, and her leadership in addressing decoloniality and restitution led us to select her for this post.”

The museum said it plans to host a town hall “in the immediate future” to “openly discuss race and equity within museums.”

“We recognize that listening is only a small part of honoring our commitment to being an inclusive and anti-racist institution,” NOMA said.

In 2018, the Brooklyn Museum received similar backlash after it hired Kristen Windmuller-Luna, a white woman, to curate its African art collection.

Windmuller-Luna has a Ph.D. in African art history from Princeton University, and lectured in Columbia University’s department of art history and archaeology.

Despite the blowback, the museum also defended its decision, citing her “track record as an innovator in the collection and exhibition of the arts of Africa,” Jennifer Chi, the museum’s chief curator, told The Post in a statement at the time.