In Discussion with Maurita N. Poole Phd

Photo Credit: Maurita N. Poole Phd

Maurita N. Poole, PhD is the Director and Chief Curator at the Newcomb Art Museum. She holds a doctorate in anthropology from Emory University. Her curatorial practice is shaped by her training at the Williams College Museum of Art, The Walters Art Museum, The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art.

Poole most recently served as director and curator at Clark Atlanta University Art Museum (CAUAM). As director, she strengthened the museum’s infrastructure and provided opportunities for the next generation of museum professionals. She created and managed the Tina Dunkley Fellowship in American Art, a collaborative Diversity in Art Museum Leadership Initiative (DAMLI) involving CAUAM, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), and the Zuckerman Museum of Art (ZMA). In addition, she developed the “Black Optics Artist Residency,” a platform that connected artists of African descent from the American South and Global South.

Her curatorial projects primarily focus on African and African Diaspora art. Her most recent exhibition is Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation (2023). In 2021, she curated the complementary exhibitions Wilay Mendez Paez: Notes from the Underground and Portals to a New World at The Atlanta Contemporary and CAUAM. Other noteworthy shows include Guy Gabon: L’Autre Bord/The Bridge of Beyond (2020), Crafting for Life (2019), Alfred Conteh: The Sweet Spot (2018), and Frederick D. Jones and The Social Surreal (2017).

She is an alum of the 2020 Center for Curatorial Leadership program.

UZOMAH: What makes Newcomb Art Museum stand out from other college museums?

MAURITA: Created in 1996, the Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University honors the legacy of the 1886-2006 Newcomb College (the first coordinated college for women in the U.S.) and expands upon the college’s vision for education, social enterprise, and artistic experience. It is known for holding the world’s largest collection of Newcomb arts and crafts produced at Newcomb College from 1895 until 1940. Yet, its exhibitions highlight contemporary art with a keen interest in the contributions of women, artists from historically underrepresented communities, and artists of the American South. With additional support from faculty in various departments across Tulane University, NAM’s exhibitions and interdisciplinary programs explore critical issues in art, craft, and design, as well as matters of socio-cultural and civic import.

U: Why is having a museum so crucial on campus for the students to have access to?

M: Campus museums provide access and a safe environment for students to become comfortable with visual art and museums. In these spaces, people learn how art can be meaningful, interesting, and, ideally, also fun. They are also critical sites for training the next generation of professionals for the art and cultural sphere.

U: What has been the most popular exhibit since you started working at the museum?

M: There hasn’t been a singular show during my two years. The numbers are consistent each semester, but the feedback and the people who show up for events point to the diverse groups that engage and support the Newcomb Art Museum. Core Memory: Louisiana Native American Basketry, curated by Laura Blereau, brought in a large number of people interested in indigenous craft traditions and audiences from outside of New Orleans who wanted to engage five Indigenous Nations based in Louisiana (Chitimacha, Choctaw, Coushatta, Tunica-Biloxi, and Houma). Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis was popular among community activists and educators seeking a platform to address one of the most challenging issues facing the state and the nation. I have been impressed by the feedback we are receiving about Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation and Victory Workers, curated by Kendyll Gross, because of the inclusion of archival materials and contemporary art that connects local histories to issues of national import.

U: How would you sum up your job to someone unfamiliar with your career?

M: As the director of the Newcomb Art Museum, my role is to determine the scope, direction, and tenor of exhibitions, programs, and collections management. I take into consideration the institution’s history and work to expand it so that it speaks to the contemporary moment and needs of its diverse audience on and off campus. As head curator, I am responsible for working with my staff to develop art exhibitions and programs. I actively work to create a culture that allows for innovation and experimentation, including all the failure that comes along with it. In addition, I work with Institutional Advancement and the Advisory Board to bring in the resources that will sustain and expand the museum’s operations and community-based initiatives.

U: As executive director of the Newcomb Art Museum, how do you incorporate new ideas that create more ways for the art to engage with the audience and for the audience to engage with the art to understand more about societal and cultural issues?

M: To get new ideas for engaging audiences, I build teams of individuals who are passionate about using art to engage societal issues. I provide NAM’s Community Engagement Coordinators and Curator of Education and Interpretation with as many resources, and as much time as possible, to listen to visitors and community members so that we can develop initiatives that people will find meaningful. Based upon the insights they gain, NAM’s curators of exhibitions then develop shows, or commission works, that can further illuminate or encourage dialogue about these issues.

U: Can you explain why art is such an essential subject for children to learn in school from a young age?

M: I see art as a critical part of an overall curriculum that seeks to encourage creativity and self-expression. In creating art, one is allowed to use different materials and tools to consider not only what to create but also how to do it. Because creating art involves experimenting, exploring, or simply attempting to do something, it is a way to provide early exposure to complex processes. If we are talking about just exposing them to art and not their actual creation of things, then it is still essential for stimulating ideas and a sense of the world beyond them. 

U: How can non-blacks learn from this exhibition about the black experience in America?

M: The Emancipation Proclamation, as a military measure, freed the enslaved and reinforced ideals that are foundational to democracy in the United States. Therefore, I would say that the most important way for all visitors to learn from Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation is to enter with the understanding that it is an exhibition about the aftereffects of a critical moment in the history of the United States from the perspective of African American artists. If people are willing to keep an open mind and consider this show to be about America rather than simply a black experience in America, then I think they will learn a lot and, hopefully, enjoy it.

U: What is the most exciting and interesting thing you have found on the back of a painting?

M: Another painting. There is a 1931 painting by William Edouard Scott in Clark Atlanta University’s permanent collection that is a double-sided painting. On one side is a depiction of men unloading a wagon; it is a commentary about labor. On the other side, which is rarely shown or may not have ever been shown, there is a depiction of a circus performance. It is a beautiful meditation on work and labor. Discovering this, along with Diamond Mason (the Curatorial Assistant, CAUAM from 2016-2021), was one of the innumerable things I learned about twentieth-century African American art while working there.

U: Have you ever found a piece of artwork with a great back story that can’t be verified officially?

M: Yes, for a work of art, the contexts in which they were produced, and the later institutional history that influences my understanding of it. Often, we only have access to partial information. While aspects of a work of art can be verified, the meaning and implication of the official facts tend to be subjective. I don’t mean that we can’t “officially verify” anything, but I tend to be curious about what details and information are not available and, therefore, forces us to qualify our interpretation of a work of art.

 For more information about exhibits at the Williams Museum of Art, please visit here. For information about Williams College, visit here. For more information about Maruita’s work as Director and Chief Curator at the Newcomb Art Museum, please visit here.