The Supervisory Board of documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH has announced that Naomi Beckwith has been appointed as Artistic Director of documenta 16. This decision, made by the international Finding Committee, was revealed at a press conference in Kassel by Andreas Hoffmann, Managing Director of the organization. Documenta 16 will take place in Kassel from June 12 to September 19, 2027.

Beckwith currently serves as the Deputy Director and Jennifer & David Stockman Chief Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation in New York. In her role, she oversees collections, exhibitions, publications, curatorial programs, and archives, providing strategic direction within the Guggenheim’s international network of affiliate museums. Her extensive curatorial experience includes positions at the MCA Chicago and the Studio Museum in Harlem, and her work has earned her a reputation for shaping significant exhibitions and advancing dialogues in contemporary art.

Among her notable projects are the award-winning Howardena Pindell: What Remains to Be Seen (2018, MCA Chicago, US), The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now (2015, MCA Chicago, US), and her contribution to Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America (2021, The New Museum, New York), an exhibition conceived by the late Okwui Enwezor. Beckwith’s scholarly achievements include fellowships at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. She has also been a visiting professor at Northwestern University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Her contributions to the field have been widely recognized. In 2024, she was awarded the prestigious David C. Driskell Prize in African American Art and Art History by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Currently, she is leading the curatorial team for the “American Season” exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, scheduled for Fall 2025.

On the occasion of her appointment, Naomi Beckwith stated: “It is the honor of a lifetime to be selected as Artistic Director for documenta 16. documenta is an institution that belongs to the entire world, as much as it belongs to Kassel, as well as an institution that is in perpetual dialogue with history as much as it is a barometer of art and culture in the immediate present. I am humbled by the breadth of this responsibility and equally excited to share my research and ideas with this storied and generous institution: one that affords space and time for focus, deep study, exploration, experimentation, and awakenings for artists, curators, and audiences alike.”

The Finding Committee expressed their confidence in Beckwith’s vision and expertise. Yilmaz Dziewior, Director of Museum Ludwig in Cologne, and Mami Kataoka, Director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, shared the following on behalf of the six-member committee: “It was not easy to reach a decision. Our discussions reflected the complexity and entanglement of the current situation of documenta. We are convinced by Naomi Beckwith’s expertise and international curatorial experience. Her proposal for documenta 16 addresses artistic practices that give us tools to think possible futures together.”

The Finding Committee for documenta 16 included the following members: Yilmaz Dziewior, Director of Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Sergio Edelsztein, independent curator, Berlin and Tel Aviv, N’Goné Fall, independent curator and cultural policy expert, Paris/Dakar, Gridthiya Gaweewong, Artistic Director of the Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, Mami Kataoka, Director of the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, and Yasmil Raymond, independent curator, Frankfurt am Main.