Thelma Golden

Thelma Golden is an art curator and director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City. Golden, who originated the term post-blackness, has left her mark on the world of contemporary art. From 2000 to 2005, she served as the museum’s deputy director for exhibitions and programs. She has championed the work of artists such as Kehinde Wiley, Glenn Ligon, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby and organized exhibitions that toured internationally to cities including Boston, Houston, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Chicago.

Prior to her work at the Studio Museum, Golden was at the Whitney Museum of American Art from 1991 to 1998, where she promoted young black conceptual artists and organized several groundbreaking exhibitions, including the Whitney Museum's biennial in 1993 and the controversial exhibition "Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art" in 1994. Golden served as the Special Projects Curator for contemporary art collectors Peter Norton and Eileen Harris Norton from 1998 to 2000.

Aside from her curatorial work, Golden is an accomplished speaker, having presented "How Art Gives Shape to Cultural Change" at the TED conference's 25th anniversary gathering in 2009. She served on the Graduate Committee at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors. She also serves on the boards of Creative Time in New York and the Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) in London.

In 2008, Golden was a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, and in 2010, President Obama appointed her to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House. By 2015, she had joined the board of directors at the Obama Foundation. Golden's contributions to the art world have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence in 2016 and the J. Paul Getty Medal in 2008. ArtReview also recognized her influence in the field by featuring her on their list of the 100 most influential people in the international art world multiple times.

Golden holds three honorary doctorates and a Barnard College Medal of Distinction. She has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Bloomberg, and Artnet, further solidifying her standing as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Art.