Jamillah James Named Senior Curator at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago has appointed Jamillah James as senior curator. She will begin in her role early next year.

“Visiting the MCA helped me realize the possibilities of curating and of museums,” James said. “The city of Chicago is home to an incredible community of artists, and I am humbled by the opportunity to be an advocate for them as part of the MCA’s team.”

As curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, she has curated solo shows for Sara Cwynar and Rebecca Morris that will open in 2022. With Margot Norton, she co-curated “Soft Water Hard Stone,” the 2021 edition of the New Museum Triennial for emerging artists in New York, that runs until January 23, 2022. Besides her curatorial job at the Institute of Contemporary Art she has also worked as assistant curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and held curatorial positions at the Studio Museum in Harlem and Queens Museum, New York. James graduated from Columbia College in 2005 as part of the institution’s first class of art history graduates.