Israel Museum Appoints Nirith Nelson as Senior Curator Of Contemporary Art

The Israel Museum today announced the appointment of Nirith Nelson as its new Landeau Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art. An internationally renowned independent curator of contemporary art, Nelson currently serves as the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design's Head of Curatorial Studies. She will begin her new role at the museum in November 2022.

Nelson has curated more than 40 exhibitions in museums and art spaces across Israel and internationally, including the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the Triennial of Photography Hamburg, Loop Barcelona, the Hangaram Art Museum in Seoul, Tokyo Designers Block, as well as the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv; Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art; among others.

In addition to her work as a researcher, and interdisciplinary curator, Nelson has led a diverse array of projects aimed at cultivating a local and international community of emerging artists and promoting new frameworks in art education and museology. She previously served as Art Advisor of the Jerusalem Foundation, and from 2002 to 2015, was Art Director of the Jerusalem Center for the Visual Arts (JCVA) International Artist Residency Program, which engages promising and prominent artists as well as curators. Since 1998, Nelson has been a faculty member of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.

Denis Weil, CEO of the Israel Museum welcomed her, saying "Nirith's rich experience prepares her perfectly for her new role, where she will be combining research, teaching, and a focus on public art, to share the power of contemporary art in ways that will be both more critical and accessible to the general public. We are excited to welcome her and look forward to creating, out of the conflicting yet fertile grounds of Jerusalem, new pathways that will help broaden the use and impact of contemporary art programming for museums and audiences worldwide."

Tami Manor-Friedman, the Museum's Chief Curator of the Fine Arts Wing, added "I am happy to congratulate Nirith on her appointment and return to the Israel Museum, where she began her career. Nirith's academic scholarship and deep acquaintance with artists and curators worldwide will help her lead the department as it faces the complex challenges of contemporary art in the current era of global transformation and crises."

"I am delighted to be returning to the Israel Museum, the place where I started my career, as the curator of the Contemporary Art Department. The department's rich and important collection is an excellent starting point for an attentive examination of the art field's most pressing questions," said Nelson. "I look forward to making my contribution to advancing the department, through curation aimed at preserving its significant assets and achievements, alongside activities that engage in a dynamic discourse with the changing currents and innovations manifested in contemporary life and culture."

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, is Israel's foremost cultural institution and one of the world's leading encyclopedic museums. Founded in 1965, the Museum's terraced 20-acre campus houses a wide-ranging collection of art and archaeology of world-class status. Its holdings include the world's most comprehensive collections of the archaeology of the Holy Land, and Jewish Art and Life, as well as significant and extensive holdings in the Fine Arts, the latter encompassing 10 separate departments: Israeli Art; European Art; Modern Art; Contemporary Art; Prints and Drawings; Photography; Design and Architecture; Asian Art; the Arts of Africa and Oceania; and the Arts of the Americas. The campus also includes the Shrine of the Book, which houses the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls, the world's oldest biblical manuscripts; an extensive model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period; the Billy Rose Art Garden; and a dynamic Youth Wing for Art Education whose educational programs attract over 100,000 children every year. In just over 50 years, the Museum has built a far-ranging collection of nearly 500,000 objects through an unparalleled legacy of gifts and support from a wide circle of friends and patrons throughout the world. The Museum also embraces a dynamic program of some 20-25 new exhibitions a year, and a rich annual program of publications, educational activities, and special cultural events that reach out to every sector of the population.

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