NEW ORLEANS, LA.- The New Orleans Museum of Art announces the appointment of Dr. Redell Hearn to the newly created position of Chief Educator. On Monday, February 6, Hearn officially began her position, which leads the museum’s Learning and Engagement department, including programming, partnerships, and community engagement initiatives. Hearn brings over two decades of experience in museums and higher education with an emphasis on creating new digital and in-person learning practices—from curriculum development for internships to supporting institutional efforts to expand community engagement.

“We are thrilled that Dr. Hearn is bringing her expertise to NOMA, where she will work to ensure we are fulfilling our mission to inspire lifelong learning through the arts with our communities here in New Orleans and beyond,” said Susan M. Taylor, Montine McDaniel Freeman Director of NOMA. “I am particularly excited for Dr. Hearn to shape how NOMA foregrounds education through our exhibitions, programs, partnerships, and research initiatives.”

At NOMA, Hearn’s work will focus on expanding how the museum thinks about learning through its current exhibitions and public programs, while also developing new higher education initiatives and opportunities for professional development within the organization.

Before joining NOMA, Hearn was the Founding Director of the Department of Academic Affairs for the Mississippi Museum of Art, where she created a department that embeds museology-based learning into museum work to bridge the gap between internships and entry-level employment.

Establishing the Department required complementary positioning with the educational mission of museum and its academic partners. This cross-departmental work is a direct outgrowth of Hearn’s role as the Curator of Art and Civil Rights for Tougaloo College and the museum.

Additionally, Hearn previously served as Curator of History at the California African American Museum and has worked as a museum consultant for organizations including NOMA, the City of North Miami and the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami; the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture; the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation.

In 2016, Hearn was awarded a Fulbright Specialist Grant in Museum Studies, at the request of the U.S. Embassy in Dakar, Senegal, where she worked with three local museums on special projects and conducted museum professional development training. From 2002 to 2009, Hearn served as the Founding Director for the Master of Arts in Museum Studies program at Southern University at New Orleans—the first graduate-level museum studies program in Louisiana.

Select publications include Art and Civil Rights: The Mississippi Museum of Art and Tougaloo College Art and Civil Rights Initiative; “Re-Engaging the Past to Re-Envision the Future,” published in the American Alliance of Museums’s Museum magazine; contributions to Re/Claiming Art, Power, Ideas, and Vision in an Ethnically Plural Community, published by the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami; and her dissertation “From Practice to Theory: An Exploratory Research Study of the Relevance of Museum Studies Curriculum to Museum Professionals.”

Hearn holds a Doctorate of Philosophy from Syracuse University in humanities with a focus on museology. She is currently an adjunct faculty member in Johns Hopkins University’s Master of Arts in Museum Studies program.