TOLEDO, OH.- The Toledo Museum of Art will welcome Jessica S. Hong as curator of modern and contemporary art. Hong begins her appointment at TMA on March 15, 2021. In this role, Hong will manage the modern and contemporary art collection and help broaden the discourse around global and contemporary art.
“We are thrilled to have Jessica join our growing curatorial team,” said Adam Levine, the Edward Drummond and Florence Scott Libbey director of the Toledo Museum of Art. “Her breadth and depth of knowledge is distinguished, and her commitment to engaging modern and contemporary works with the Museum’s historical collection make her the perfect fit. Jessica understands that the past and present are not separate terrains – they intersect and constantly redefine each other – and her addition to our team will help us tell new stories through our collection and expand the canon of art history.”
“Especially given these unprecedented and challenging times, it is an honor and privilege to join the esteemed team at the Toledo Museum of Art and embark on this new role as curator of modern and contemporary Art with TMA,” Hong stated. “Building on the Museum’s distinguished legacy and renowned collection, I am excited to shape a dynamic modern and contemporary program as part of its integrative campus that expands artistic, historical and cultural dialogues to reflect the multifaceted world we live in. Moreover, I am delighted to call Toledo my new home. With TMA’s emphasis on teaching visual literacy and deep commitment to its communities, I look forward to collaboratively exploring the transformative possibilities that the arts can inspire to help build toward more equitable and generative futures for our communities and beyond.”
Hong’s many professional accomplishments include being the first to fill the role of associate curator of global contemporary art at Dartmouth’s Hood Museum of Art on the occasion of the museum’s major expansion by leading architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. In this inaugural position at the HMA, she spearheaded the contemporary art program with a global purview and perspective that moves beyond the colonial geopolitical frame of the “global” to one that is expansive and intersectional.
Prior to the Hood Museum, Hong was assistant curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. At the end of her tenure, she simultaneously organized Arthur Jafa’s first Boston presentation featuring his acclaimed film installation Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death and the ICA’s presentation of We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85, the groundbreaking exhibition originally organized by Rujeko Hockley and Catherine Morris for the Brooklyn Museum, focusing on the cultural production of women of color during the second-wave feminist movement.
Before her time at the ICA, Hong was part of the newly launched Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Harvard Art Museums. She managed numerous exhibitions and corresponding publications including Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia. Working alongside Dr. Stephen Gilchrist, this was the first exhibition in over 25 years to prominently feature contemporary Indigenous Australian art in the United States.
Hong received her Master of Arts with Distinction in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and a Bachelor of Arts in art history from Barnard College, Columbia University, graduating cum laude and achieving departmental honors.
