NEW YORK, NY.- Museum of the City of New York—the city’s storyteller for 100 years—announced the appointment of Angel (Monxo) Santiago-López as Curator of Community Histories. In this newly created role – funded by a recent Leadership in Art Museums grant through the Mellon Foundation – Dr. López will be responsible for projects illuminating the history of the diverse neighborhoods, communities, and cultures of New York, working in active collaboration with community members to shape the priorities, content, and interpretation of their histories. He shifts into this new position from his most recent as Associate Curator at the Museum, notably becoming the institution’s first Latinx permanent curator.

An urban thinker, educator, and cartographer based in the South Bronx, Monxo first came to MCNY as a Mellon Fellow, before being tapped for the Assistant Curator role. In his tenure at the Museum, he organized or assisted with several exhibitions including Food in New York: Bigger Than the Plate; Puppets of New York; Who We Are: Visualizing NYC By The Numbers; Analog City: New York B.C.; New York Responds: The First Six Months; and as well as This Is New York: 100 Years of the City in Art and Pop Culture, the Museum’s upcoming centennial exhibition.

“Monxo has been an essential member of our team and an influential voice in the life of the Museum. I’m thrilled to continue working with him, now in this new and important role, to help deepen the institution’s connections to, collaborations with and illumination of the communities and cultures of New York City,” says Sarah Henry, Robert A. and Elizabeth Rohn Jeffe Chief Curator and Interim Director of the Museum of the City of New York.

About his new appointment, Monxo López says, “The Curator of Community Histories position is predicated on a generous and nimble understanding of the work a curator is supposed to do; the job begins and ends outside of the Museum’s gallery.” He adds, “It’s a thrilling and humbling opportunity for me personally – as well as testament to the Museum of the City of New York’s commitment to be inclusive, responsive, and a mirror that reflects our wonderful city.”