News/Commentary

New Orleans Museum of Art blasted for hiring a white woman as its new African art curator

July 6, 2023 | | Print Article

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) stirred up a racial hornets nest when it decided to tap a white woman named Amanda M. Maples as the new curator of its African art collection, citing her “breadth of experience” in the field.

The museum made the announcement via a press release on Instagram, promoting the African art collection as one of the most important ones in the US.

“We’re excited to welcome Amanda M. Maples as NOMA’s new Françoise Billion Curator of African Art!” NOMA wrote on Instagram.
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“Maples joins the museum this week and will oversee NOMA’s significant collection of historic African art, which is considered one of the most important in the United States. In her new role, 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 continued.


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“Maples comes to NOMA from the North Carolina Museum of Art, where she was Curator of Global African Arts and served as visiting faculty in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She has curated a range of exhibitions and written essays, books, and articles on historical and contemporary African arts, decoloniality, museum policies, collecting practices, and restitution,” the press release concluded.

Critics couldn’t wait to pounce on social media. Many wondered aloud why the museum couldn’t find someone of African descent to take 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?”Sara Joy Carminati commented on the Instagram 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.”

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

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According to the New York Post, in response to all the criticism, the museum issued a statement, claiming it could not comment 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.”

The media outlet went on to report, “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.”

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

The exhibit will be a collaboration with North American and African institutions, which will include NOMA and the Museum of Black Civilizations in Dakar, Senegal.

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“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 asserted.

The museum commented further in another statement via ARTnews, “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 explained. “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.”

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Due to the blowback, the museum is now planning 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 remarked.

In a press release announcing her hiring, Maples commented on how she intends to approach the curatorial role.

“As I continue to immerse myself in New Orleans, I am considering how to fill historical gaps in the museum’s extensive collection to tell the fullest story of African art possible and how NOMA can highlight the work of contemporary artists in Africa,” she contended.

While Leftists howled, others had a different take:

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