Blanton's Latin American art curator leaving for MoMA

Beverly Adams, the Blanton Museum of Art’s Latin American art curator, will soon join the department of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. On Sept. 1, she’ll be MoMA's new Estrellita Brodsky curator of Latin American art.

An international search for a Latin American art curator for the University of Texas museum is underway. Over the years, the Blanton’s status as a leader in the study of Latin American art has risen, and its collection now boasts more than 2,500 pieces ranging from drawings to sculptures.

“This place is special to me,” said Adams, who attended undergraduate and graduate school at UT and also trained at the Blanton. “It’s bittersweet.”

Among her proudest achievements at the Blanton, she said, was being able to build a team devoted to Latin American art, including an assistant curator and a curatorial position solely for art from the Spanish Americas.

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“Over the past five years, (the museum) has expanded what it's meant to have Latin American art in the Blanton and in Austin,” Adams said. Boosting the inclusion of art by U.S.-based Latinos and Chicanos has been a part of widening the museum’s scope. “We’re keenly aware that Latinx and Chicanx art deserves a place at the table."

The Blanton has been collecting Latin American art since 1963 and became the first museum in the United States to create a curatorial position devoted to the field in 1988. Today, the field of Latin American art has grown throughout the country, and Adams said she's proud that the Blanton continues to train scholars and curators.

Adams, who will depart from the Blanton in July, spearheaded the museum's reinstallation of its Latin American permanent collection galleries in 2017. She’s organized various exhibitions, including “Words/Matter: Latin American Art and Language,” with co-curator Florencia Bazzano. The exhibit, which explores the relationship between language and visual art, will be on display through May 26.

At the MoMA, Adams will help with, among other things, the development of special exhibitions and catalogs, as well as participate in the museum’s acquisitions and research programs for Latin American art.

“Beverly Adams brings to MoMA a distinguished record as a scholar and curator of Latin American art,” said Ann Temkin, the museum's Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis chief curator of painting and sculpture. “She also brings an enthusiastic and collegial viewpoint as we think across geographical boundaries to offer new readings of the history of modern art.”