NEWARK, NJ.- Newark Museum Board President Andrew Richards, and Director and Chief Executive Officer Steven Kern have announced the appointment of Tricia Laughlin Bloom, Ph.D., as Curator of American Art.

“After undertaking an extensive nationwide search, we are pleased to welcome Tricia to the Newark Museum,” Kern said. “She brings enthusiasm and experience to the Curatorial Department. Her broad knowledge of American art will enhance the Museum’s impact on the communities we serve.”

Dr. Bloom’s scholarship will support exhibitions, education and publications that inform the public, students and scholars. In her role as Curator of American Art, she is responsible for the exhibition, research, publication and acquisitions for the Museum’s Collection. Prior to her appointment, Dr. Bloom served in several capacities at the Brooklyn Museum, most recently as Associate Curator of Exhibitions.

“The Newark Museum has a unique and distinguished history of collecting and interpreting great American art along with extraordinary global collections,” Bloom said. "I’m excited to be joining an institution that has so much to offer the communities of Newark and the greater New York and New Jersey area.”

While at the Brooklyn Museum, Dr. Bloom served as coordinator for the upcoming exhibition Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks for the Brooklyn Museum. She is also coeditor and contributor for the accompanying catalogue, “Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks,” co-published with Skira Rizzolii, and curator for several large-scale incoming traveling exhibitions, including HIDE/SEEK: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture and WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath. Dr. Bloom was previously a Research Associate, American Art, at the Newark Museum, assisting with the organization of the acclaimed exhibition Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America, 1920s to 50s.

“Tricia’s wide range of curatorial knowledge and a deep familiarity with Newark’s important American art collections makes her an ideal complement to our institution,” said Chief Curator Ulysses Grant Dietz. “She brings equal facility with historical collections and contemporary artists.”

A resident of Maplewood since 2006, Dr. Bloom holds a Doctorate in Twentieth-Century Art History from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, where she received a Graduate School Fellowship along with Research and Teaching Assistantships; she also holds a Masters of Arts degree in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Art History and Criticism from the State University of New York at Stony Brook; and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and Art History from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.