Molesworth named ICA chief curator

Helen Molesworth, head of the department of modern and contemporary art at the Harvard Art Museum since 2007, has been named chief curator at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art. She is expected to begin work on Feb. 22, taking the place of Nicholas Baume, who left in September to become director of New York’s Public Art Fund.

While at Harvard, Molesworth organized the exhibitions “Long Life Cool White: Photographs by Moyra Davey”at the Harvard Art Museum as well as “ACT UP New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis, 1987-1993,” “Corbu Pop”by William Pope.L; “Paul Chan: Three Easy Pieces” and “Felix Gonzales-Torres: "Untitled" (Placebo - Landscape - for Roni).”

Previous to joining Harvard, Molesworth was chief curator of exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, where she co-curated the first United States retrospective of Luc Tuymans. Before that she was curator of contemporary art at the Baltimore Museum of Art from 2000 to 2002; and director and curator of the Amelie A. Wallace Gallery at State University of New York (SUNY) in Old Westbury from 1997 to 1999. Molesworth also served as senior critic at the Yale School of Art and taught at the Bard Center for Curatorial Studies; SUNY, Old Westbury; and the Cooper Union School of Art. She was a co-founding editor of “Documents,” a magazine of contemporary visual culture. She received a Ph.D. in the history of art from Cornell University in 1997.