NEW YORK, NY.- The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is pleased to announce that Maura Reilly has joined the staff as Senior Curator. AFA Director George G. King said, Maura comes to the AFA with substantial curatorial and scholarly expertise, and I am confident she will add greatly to the AFAs admired exhibitions program.
Ms. Reillys most recent position was Senior Curator at Location One, a non-profit exhibition space and international residency program dedicated to artistic experimentation. From 2003 to 2008, as Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, she conceived and launched the first exhibition and public programming space in a U.S. museum devoted exclusively to feminist art, where she organized several exhibitions, among them, the permanent re-installation of The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago; the critically acclaimed Global Feminisms, co-curated with Linda Nochlin; and Ghada Amer: Love Has No End. Prior to joining the Brooklyn Museum, she taught contemporary art history at Tufts University, wrote art criticism for Art in America, and organized a number of international exhibitions as an independent curator. Her recent curatorial projects include La Mirada Iracunda (The Furious Gaze) (2008), Nayland Blake: Behavior (2008), Carolee Schneemann: Painting, What It Became (2009), and Richard Bell: I Am Not Sorry (forthcoming, 2009).
Reilly is the author of numerous articles and books and has received various awards and accolades, including ArtTables prestigious Future Women Leadership Award (2005) and the Presidents Award from the Womens Caucus for Art, which recognizes and anticipates a lifetime of achievement in the arts. Dr. Reilly received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
In accepting the new position, Ms. Reilly commented, "For 100 years the AFA has been a benchmark institution, organizing innumerable stellar art exhibitions that have travelled to museums worldwide. I look forward to assisting in the perpetuation of that proud tradition, and to working with the outstanding team of individuals at the AFA who have dedicated themselves to that mission."