SFMOMA and MoAD Jointly Hire First Curator of Art of the African Diaspora

Nearly three years after announcing the creation of a joint curatorial position between the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of the African Diaspora, the two institutions have named Cornelia Stokes as the inaugural assistant curator of art of the African diaspora.

Most recently, Stokes worked as an independent curator with Emblazon Arts. She has previously held curatorial fellowships at New Haven’s NXTHVN and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. In this new three-year, full-time position, Stokes will develop scholarship, support exhibitions and public programs, and aid in SFMOMA’s quest to diversify its collection. She begins on Jan. 5, 2026.

“We are excited to work alongside our neighbors at SFMOMA to support a curatorial practice that is expansive, pushes boundaries and creates new ways to creatively engage with Black artists,” Monetta White, executive director and CEO of MoAD, said in Wednesday’s announcement.

At MoAD, Stokes will work with Key Jo Lee, chief of curatorial affairs and public programs, and at SFMOMA with Jenny Gheith, curator and interim head of painting and sculpture. (The announcement doesn’t detail whether she will have a desk at both museums, which are around the corner from each other in the Yerba Buena neighborhood.)

The curatorial position has been a while in the making. It was first announced in February 2023, with the goal of naming an inaugural curator that summer. “The role is envisioned as a platform to cultivate new curatorial talent and advance the pipeline of BIPOC curators within the museum field,” that original press release stated.

Public conversation about the need for just such a position goes even farther back: In the cultural reckoning that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd, activists and artists called on SFMOMA to create a pipeline program for hiring young Black curators to work at the museum.

The announcement is a hopeful note at the end of a hard year for both museums. MoAD and SFMOMA had grants rescinded amid the devastating cuts to federal arts funding. In May, SFMOMA laid off 29 employees and cut another 13 vacant positions, citing low visitor numbers and decreased downtown foot traffic. (Nearby, the California Historical Society closed in January 2025, the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s temporary closure has passed the one-year mark, and the Mexican Museum failed to open.)

Bucking that downward trend, MoAD reopened in October to much fanfare after six months of gallery upgrades, and celebrated the museum’s 20th anniversary and the second annual SF/Bay Area Black Art Week.

Yet according to an end-of-year email from White, Stokes’ appointment is one of the moments she’s most excited about. “This historic collaboration reflects a shared commitment to placing artists of the African diaspora at the center of contemporary art discourse,” she wrote. “It signals where we’re headed — and what’s possible when vision, values, and partnership align.”