OMAHA, NE.- Joslyn Art Museum announces the appointment of Taylor J. Acosta, Ph.D., as the Museum's new associate curator of European art. A scholar of nineteenth-century European painting, Dr. Acosta has worked as a curator in institutional and private contexts. Most recently, she was at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) as a curatorial intern, supported by a graduate research fellowship from the University of Minnesota. While there, she co-curated the exhibition International Modernism: Art in a Fast-Changing World, a thematic installation of paintings, drawings, sculpture, design, and photography from Mia’s permanent collection.

Prior to her work with Mia, she served as the curator of a prominent private collection. Dr. Acosta earned a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Minnesota in 2018, and her dissertation, “Real and Ideal: The Realism of Jules Breton,” offered a critical reexamination of the work of the French painter and poet Jules Breton and of nineteenth-century Academic and Realist art. She also holds a Master of Arts in art history from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Letters in the history of art and connoisseurship from the University of Glasgow, and a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College.

She notes, “I have long admired Joslyn’s distinguished European paintings collection, and I am so pleased to have the opportunity to build on the Museum’s rich history of scholarship and exhibitions in this area. This is such an exciting time to be joining the Museum, and I look forward to working with the dedicated staff and board and to engaging with the broader community of Omaha.”

Joslyn executive director and CEO Jack Becker said, “Taylor’s primary focus is the intersection of Realism, Naturalism, and Impressionism, which complements Joslyn’s renowned collection of nineteenth-century French painting very well. She arrives with a breadth of knowledge of European art, collecting, and curating and we are delighted to have her on staff.”

Dr. Acosta began work at Joslyn on January 2, following the late 2018 departure of Dana E. Cowen, Ph.D., who left Joslyn for The Ackland Art Museum at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is the inaugural Sheldon Peck Curator for European and American Art before 1950.