UNIVERSITY PARK, PA.- The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State announced that Joyce Robinson has been named assistant director of the museum, a newly created position for the museum. Robinson will serve as a collaborative leader and passionate advocate for the museum at a time of expansion and institutional growth.

“We are delighted to have Joyce step into the role of assistant director especially during this period of growth in the museum’s collections and programs, and at this time of expansion as we look to the museum’s future,” said Erin M. Coe, Director of the Palmer Museum of Art. “Joyce brings passionate leadership and strong ties with donors, collectors, and community members that will be critical to elevating the museum’s profile and impact.“

Robinson has served as a curator at the Palmer since 1997 and is also an affiliate associate professor in the Department of Art History. During her twenty-year tenure at the Palmer, she has curated sixty exhibitions primarily in the fields of contemporary art, photography, and American art, and served as the in-house curator for nearly thirty traveling exhibitions.

“I’m excited about the direction the museum is taking and delighted to be a part of the leadership team,” comments Robinson. “I’ve spent the better part of my career at the Palmer and have worked hard to foster relationships across campus and in the community. This feels like the right next step for me, both professionally and personally.”

Robinson’s managerial and organizational skills were amply evident in the highly successful Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials, recently on view at the Palmer and currently traveling to academic museums across the United States. Working with a faculty member from English and Women’s Studies and a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, she oversaw the complex curatorial project as well as the exhibition’s extensive outreach and educational programming, which involved some thirty entities across Penn State. In partnership with the Penn State Arboretum, Robinson also helped secure a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the creation and display of outdoor sculpture by artist Aurora Robson.

In her new position, Robinson will help oversee the museum’s exhibition program and collections development; continue to foster academic partnerships and engagement across the campus; work to strengthen town and gown relationships; and assist the director with donor cultivation as well as development and marketing initiatives.
Robinson will also continue to curate exhibitions. She is part of the curatorial team, along with Julia Kasdorf and Christopher Reed from Penn State’s Department of English, organizing Field Language: The Painting and Poetry of Warren Rohrer, a project that has received significant strategic initiative implementation funding through the Office of the Provost.

Robinson holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Art History from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. from Davidson College. Her publications have appeared in Winterthur Portfolio, Museum News, New Art Examiner, Studies in the Decorative Arts, International Review of African American Art, American Art Review, and in several anthologies. She has authored and served as managing editor for numerous Palmer publications including A Small Radius of Light: G. Daniel Massad, A Retrospective (2018); A Gift from the Heart: American Art from the Collection of James and Barbara Palmer (2013); and Wos up man? Selections from the Joseph D. and Janet M. Shein Collection of Self-Taught Art (2005).

Robinson’s new role is effective immediately.