DETROIT, MICH.- Elysia Borowy-Reeder, Executive Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit announced today that Jova Lynne has been named Ford Curatorial Fellow at MOCAD. Lynne will begin her fellowship in January 2018.

The Museum of Contemporary Arts Detroit (MOCAD) has been awarded a grant from the Ford Foundation to support two Curatorial Fellows. “A profound thank you to the Ford Foundation for their support of this new prestigious fellowship. Without their support, this fellowship could not have been realized. Museum education can be, and should be, re-invented to be at the service of young people. My educational philosophy is central to program development at MOCAD, I believe that a robust arts education-including learning by doing-is critical to building future artists, curators, scholars, museum professionals, change makers, writers, audiences, and engaged citizens. We aim especially to create a more equitable education,” stated Executive Director Elysia Borowy-Reeder.

"The Ford Foundation is proud to continue support for MOCAD’s efforts to develop a more equitable and inclusive pipeline of curators and arts leaders in Detroit’s vibrant cultural sector,” said Margaret Morton, Program Officer of the Ford Foundation’s Creativity and Free Expression program. "The Curatorial Fellowships has already enriched MOCAD’s programming and provided a critical platform for innovative practice and presentation at this important arts space.”

The Ford Curatorial Fellowship provides recent graduates in the field with important professional experience. "MOCAD is a pillar in the arts community here in Detroit and I am incredibly excited to be a Ford curatorial fellow. I look forward to working with a team dedicated to showcasing the works of world-class artists while exploring intersections between local, national and international themes. I feel grateful to be given the opportunity to meet local artists while investigating and curating around the most important questions the contemporary art world faces today. I hope to come out of this fellowship with a strengthened understanding of the robust ways in which curation impacts the balance between exhibitions, public programs and education in broadening the reach of the institution to the public,” says Jova Lynne.

The intended outcome of this Fellowship is to develop and deepen curatorial research in the Southeast Michigan among the artists who live and work in the region. The Fellowship produces an exhibition accompanied by a publication, an expansive exhibition, and several public programs that put diversity first and foremost in the discourse. The Curatorial Fellowship is centered in the Education and Public Engagement and Exhibitions Departments, but crosses into all departments at MOCAD. With extensive professional development mentoring, the Fellowship program is overseen by Elysia Borowy-Reeder, MOCAD’s Executive Director, Zeb Smith, Exhibitions Manager, and Amy Corle, Curator of Education and Public Engagement. MOCAD sees the Curatorial Fellowship as core to the mission of the Museum, which is to be where adventurous minds encounter the best in contemporary visual, literary, music, and performing arts. A responsive center for diverse audiences, MOCAD presents art that contextualizes, interprets, educates and expands culture, pushing us to the edges of contemporary experience.

Jova Lynne is a transdisciplinary artist and curator of Jamaican and Colombian heritage based out of Detroit, Michigan. Born and raised in New York City in a household of artists and musicians, Jova graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA in 2010 with a Bachelors of Arts in Video Art and Education. She has worked at the Museum of Moving Image in Queens, NY as well as the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA where she first discovered her passion for curation. Jova is a grantee of the Astraea Foundation's Global Arts Fund, which has supported her work on media based projects in Kingston, Jamaica and Berlin, Germany in addition to her work in Detroit. As a co-founder of Black Artists Meet Up-Detroit, Jova is dedicated to creating space for artists to offer each other support, and address their needs. Jova moved to Detroit in 2015 to pursue a Masters of Fine Arts in Photography at Cranbrook Academy of Art which she completed in May of 2017 and is excited to join the MOCAD team.