OBERLIN, OH.- The Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College announced the appointment of Dr. Andaleeb Badiee Banta as its new Curator of European & American Art.

Dr. Banta, who will take up her post July 1, 2013, is currently Assistant Curator of Old Master Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., home to one of the world's finest collections of European & American art.

“My colleagues and I are delighted to welcome Andaleeb Banta to the Allen,” said Andria Derstine, the John G.W. Cowles Director of the museum. “Dr. Banta has a broad range of interests and skills as a curator and a teacher. Her energy and enthusiasm for both museum work and academic research is evident in her scholarship and past projects. We’re very excited about the expertise in 16th- and 17th-century art and with works on paper that she will bring to the Allen, and her ideas for future programs and exhibitions using our stellar collection.”

“It is my great honor and pleasure to become a member of the Allen’s curatorial team”, stated Dr. Banta. “Its refined collection, impressive staff, and illustrious history are just a few of the reasons I look forward with great anticipation to joining the vibrant community of the Museum and Oberlin College. Looking ahead to the Allen’s ambitious programs for the future, I hope to offer a new perspective as well as collaborate with colleagues to uphold the traditions of caring for, researching, and enhancing the Allen’s collection. I am particularly excited to engage with Oberlin students, professors, and the broader community to continue to make the Allen an active, relevant presence in Oberlin and beyond.”

Prior to her appointment as Assistant Curator at the National Gallery of Art, Dr. Banta held curatorial assistant, fellow, and research assistant positions at the Morgan Library & Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and gallery assistant positions and internships at The Frick Collection and with the dealers Otto Naumann and Wildenstein and Company. She has taught at Amherst College, Vassar College, Hunter College, the City College of New York, and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, as well as at New York University.

A graduate of New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, Dr. Banta earned her Ph.D. in 2007, with a dissertation entitled “Bernardo Strozzi: Defining an Artistic Identity in Early Seventeenth-Century Genoa” and received her B.A. from Vassar College. Dr. Banta was awarded numerous graduate and post-doctoral fellowships, including a Theodore Rousseau Fellowship from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Grant.

Dr. Banta has lectured widely at museums, universities and conferences across the United States and in Italy, and has numerous publications to her name. These include contributions to museum catalogues, and articles in publications such as Master Drawings, The Burlington Magazine and Apollo, on Strozzi, Vasari, Parmigianino, Bronzino, and other topics relating to Renaissance and Baroque art.