PRINCETON, NJ.- The Princeton University Art Museum has named Joanne P. Baron as Peter Jay Sharp, Class of 1952, Curator and Lecturer in the Art of the Ancient Americas. An archaeologist and scholar of Maya art and writing, Baron has a particular interest in Classic Maya ceramics, iconography, and hieroglyphic writing, and is one of few contemporary scholars with expertise in ancient Maya texts. In her new role, she will shape the research, study, interpretation, display, and growth of the Museum's collections of the art of the ancient Americas. Baron joins the Museum from Dumbarton Oaks, where she served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology.
Baron began her tenure at the Museum just ahead of the opening of its boldly designed new building, which quadruples the space for changing displays drawn from the Museum’s globe-spanning collections, now numbering more than 117,000 objects. The Museum’s holdings from the ancient Americas are a particular strength, consisting of over 3,000 works representing thousands of years of artistic production, and are one of the finest collections of this material in the United States. Objects in the collections include hallmark examples of stone carving, metalwork, ceramics, and textiles from ancient Indigenous cultures across the Americas. Mesoamerica is an area of great strength, with masterpieces of Olmec jade work, Maya painted vases and figurines, and Zapotec urns.
As Sharp Curator and Lecturer, Baron will steward these collections and define their public presentation through the development of exhibitions, publications, research (including provenance research), and acquisitions. She will also teach regularly in the Department of Art and Archaeology and the Program in Latin American Studies.
Baron brings to her role at the Museum both a professional network of academic researchers and a history of public engagement, particularly with diasporic Indigenous communities of Mesoamerica now residing in the United States. These connections will continue to grow and will strengthen the Museum’s commitment to ethical engagement in collecting, research, and stewardship.
Baron previously studied nearly 100 of the Museum’s most significant Maya objects through her work with the Kerr Archive at Dumbarton Oaks, which contains approximately 60,000 photographs of more than 9,000 works of art from across the Americas. Based on her analysis of hieroglyphic inscriptions on the works pictured in this archive, Baron developed a new vocabulary to describe Maya art guided by indigenous Maya traditions. This approach will present new possibilities for engagement with Princeton’s collections. In addition to her position at Dumbarton Oaks, Baron has participated in the assessment and management of collections at the University of Delaware Museums and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
“I am delighted to welcome an innovative scholar of Joanne’s caliber to shepherd one of the strongest collections in the United States for the study of the artistic and cultural achievements of historic Central and South America. Her outstanding scholarship combined with her demonstrated commitment to public engagement and her eagerness to find new ways of connecting this material with other global collections make her an exciting scholar curator to watch,” said James Steward, Nancy A. Nasher–David J. Haemisegger, Class of 1976, Director.
Beyond her collections work, Baron has conducted fieldwork in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and the United States. As Director of La Florida Archaeology Project in Guatemala, she led a multinational team in conducting excavations and artifact analysis. Baron ensured that the findings of the La Florida project were accessible to the local community through a series of workshops in El Naranjo, Guatemala. Baron also worked closely with Nahua and Mam Maya immigrant communities in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, connecting them with resources and facilitating workshops in Nahuatl and Maya hieroglyphic writing.
Baron's extensive history of teaching includes roles as a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and subsequently as faculty in history and social sciences at Bard Early College. She has taught courses in archaeology, anthropology, and ancient Mesoamerica. While at the University of Pennsylvania, she collaborated with the museum’s Office of Academic Engagement to develop educational programming specifically tailored to the university museum’s collections.
“It’s an honor to join an institution with such a robust collection of ancient American works, particularly at a moment of tremendous excitement for the Museum,” said Baron. “I’m eager to begin collaborating with colleagues, students, and broader communities to share the richness of these artistic traditions.”
The Sharp Curatorship and Lectureship was established by the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation in memory of Princeton alumnus Peter Jay Sharp, Class of 1952, the hotelier and real estate developer whose philanthropy in the arts extends from the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at the Julliard School to the Peter Jay Sharp Building at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Lincoln Center.
