With a grant from the American Art Program to establish a fellowship program focused on strengthening the professional pipeline for curatorial positions, the Smithsonian American Art Museum has selected Grace Yasumura as its inaugural Luce Foundation Curatorial Fellow. During her tenure, Yasumura will apprentice with an experienced curator and receive on-the-job training in four areas of curatorial work: research, exhibition development, collections planning and public outreach.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has appointed Grace Yasumura as the inaugural Luce Foundation Curatorial Fellow. This position is the first of its kind at the museum and is one of two curatorial training fellowships at the museum supported by a five-year, $590,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. Yasumura begins her appointment on Nov. 12.

“We are excited to welcome Grace to SAAM as our inaugural Luce Foundation Curatorial Fellow,” said Amelia Goerlitz, chair of academic programs at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “Her academic background in American art and critical race theory, training in digital humanities and commitment to engaging a diverse range of museum audiences are a perfect fit for the position.”

Yasumura will apprentice with Karen Lemmey, the Lucy S. Rhame Curator of Sculpture, on the planning of a major exhibition about the construction of race in American sculpture. She will join a department of 10 curators, receiving training in four areas of curatorial work: research, exhibition development, collections planning and public outreach. She will also engage in the intellectual life of the museum’s Research and Scholars Center—home of its renowned research fellowship program and peer-reviewed journal for new scholarship American Art—presenting lectures and giving gallery talks.

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