DENVER, CO.- The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver) announce the appointment of Nora Burnett Abrams as Associate Curator. Abrams comes to MCA Denver from New York City, where she was working on her Ph.D. at the Institute of Fine Arts. Since August 2009, Abrams has been assisting with exhibitions at MCA Denver as an adjunct curator, working from her home in New York until her move to Denver at the beginning of this year.

“Nora brings both impeccable academic credentials and an outstanding ability to make contemporary art accessible to wide audiences,” said director Adam Lerner. “Working with her on two exhibitions, I quickly saw that Nora was unique among her peers nationally. Her hire is a major step in realizing MCA Denver’s vision of building our national stature while providing our local community with engaging exhibitions and educational programs.”

In addition to her work with MCA Denver, Abrams has experience working on exhibitions at major institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Grey Art Gallery, at New York University. She has assisted with significant exhibitions such as Matisse Picasso at MOMA and Robert Rauschenberg: Combines at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She taught art history at New York University and has lectured widely on modern and contemporary art. She has an M.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Stanford University. “Nora Abrams is a major young scholar who promises to raise curatorial practice and discourse around contemporary art to a new level,” said Harry Cooper, Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, at the National Gallery of Art. “We can expect great things from MCA Denver.”

Abrams is currently working on solo exhibitions for MCA Denver of painter Isca Greenfield-Sanders for Fall 2010 and Dario Robleto for Winter 2011.