PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Philadelphia Museum of Art announced the appointment of Joanna Robotham as the John Alchin and Hal Marryatt Curator of Contemporary Art and Colm Peare as Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. Robotham comes to the PMA from the Tampa Museum of Art, where she has worked for the last ten years. Peare joins the PMA from the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
“Welcoming Joanna and Colm to the museum’s Modern and Contemporary Art department marks an exciting new chapter for our curatorial programming,” said Daniel Weiss, the George D. Widener Director and CEO. “Their fresh perspective and vision strengthen our commitment to supporting living artists and expanding the conversations our institution can foster.”
Robotham will lead the exhibition, interpretation, cultivation, and strategic growth of the museum’s contemporary art holdings. In dialogue with the PMA’s modern collection, the contemporary art collection traces the evolution of artistic experimentation across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is comprised of approximately 1,200 works of painting, sculpture, film, and digital media and holds major works by artists including Agnes Martin, Cy Twombly, Barkley Hendricks, Jasper Johns, Sol LeWitt, Bruce Nauman, Bob Thompson, Ellsworth Kelly, Eva Hesse, and Robert Rauschenberg, among many others.
As the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Tampa Museum of Art, Robotham oversees the modern and contemporary collection of approximately 7,000 objects, including robust acquisitions of Caribbean, regional, and women artists. She recently organized Jun Kaneko: Silence Before Sound, the 2025 survey of the Japanese-American master ceramicist in conjunction with the acquisition of one of the artist’s monumental Dango sculptures. Past curatorial projects at the Tampa Museum of Art include Suchitra Mattai: Bodies and Souls (2024); Pepe Mar: Myth and Magic (2023); Frank Stella: What You See (2020); Ordinary/Extraordinary: Assemblage in Three Acts: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Purvis Young, and Haitian Vodou Flags (2019); Vapor and Vibration: The Art of Larry Bell and Jess Rafael Soto (2018); and Mernet Larsen: Getting Measured, 1957-2017 (2017). Robotham previously held the Neubauer Family Foundation Assistant Curator position at the Jewish Museum in New York City.
Robotham received her Master of Arts in Curatorial Studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Political Science from the University of Washington.
“The Philadelphia Museum of Art is one of the nation’s premier art institutions, and it is a privilege to join its staff as the John Alchin and Hal Marryatt Curator of Contemporary Art. I am delighted to work with Eleanor Nairne, the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator and Head of Modern and Contemporary Art, to advance the contemporary art initiatives and scholarship at PMA. I am also drawn to Philadelphia’s extraordinary creative community, and I look forward to meeting the artists who call the city home,” noted Robotham.
As the Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Peare will organize special exhibitions and commissions, and propose acquisitions. Most recently, Peare was the Assistant Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, where he worked on exhibitions including Simone Leigh (2027), Painting the French Riviera (2026), Rose Wylie (2026), Michael Craig-Martin (2024), and In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900-1930s (2024). Previously, Peare worked on exhibitions at the Barbican Art Gallery including Lucy Raven: Rounds (2025) and Noah Davis (2025). Peare received his Master of Philosophy in English Studies from the University of Cambridge and his Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from the Glasgow School of Art.
Robotham will begin her new role at the museum on September 8, 2026. Peare joins October 5, 2026.
