TWO SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUMS are joining forces to bring more visibility and curatorial attention to Black art. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) announced the joint appointment of Cornelia Stokes as the inaugural assistant curator of the Art of the African Diaspora.
A curator, researcher, and educator, Stokes will serve in the newly created role across both institutions. The museums are in walking distance of one another, located just around the corner. She will work in close collaboration with Jenny Gheith, curator and interim head of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA, and Key Jo Lee, MoAD’s chief of curatorial affairs and public programs. Stokes officially starts Jan. 5.
“Welcoming Cornelia Stokes into this new role strengthens our commitment to placing the African Diaspora at the center of artistic conversations across the world. We are excited to work alongside our neighbors at SFMOMA to support a curatorial practice that is expansive, pushes boundaries and creates new ways to creatively engage with Black artists,” MoAD Executive Director and CEO Monetta White said in the announcement. “This partnership with SFMOMA nourishes our shared local communities, while continuing to fortify San Francisco as a global destination to experience art and culture.”
“Welcoming Cornelia Stokes into this new role strengthens our commitment to placing the African Diaspora at the center of artistic conversations across the world. We are excited to work alongside our neighbors at SFMOMA to support a curatorial practice that is expansive, pushes boundaries and creates new ways to creatively engage with Black artists.”
— MoAD Executive Director and CEO Monetta White
Stokes brings more than a decade of experience working with artists and museums. In 2023, she established Emblazon Arts LLC, through which she works as an independent curator and provides curatorial consulting, working recently in this capacity with the estate of artist Donald Locke (1930-2010). Stokes served as a research assistant in Amy Sherald’s studio (2025-25) and recently completed a residency at The Last Resort Artist Retreat (Cohort 4), which was founded by Derrick Adams in Baltimore, Md. Her background also includes a curatorial fellowship at NXTHVN in New Haven, Conn. (2022), director’s fellowship in the curatorial department at the Cleveland Museum of Art (2018), and an internship in the director’s office at the Studio Museum in Harlem (2017).
Among her recent exhibitions, Stokes curated “CoatTails: Celebrating Black Life Through Style” (2025) at Gormley Gallery at Notre Dame of Maryland University in Baltimore, Md., and co-curated “NXTHVN: Reclamation” (2023) at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York and “Not For Sale”(2023) at NXTHVN. Stokes earned a master’s in Pan-African studies from Syracuse University and received a BA in art from Spelman College, with a concentration on art history and curatorial studies.
In her new role as assistant curator of the Art of the African Diaspora with SFMOMA and MoAD, Stokes will prioritize new scholarship on contemporary artists, support exhibitions and public programming, and help SFMOMA’s efforts to broaden and diversity its collection. The full-time position has a three-year term and is part of a wider partnership between the two institutions intended to not only foster knowledge and understanding of art of the African Diaspora, but also to invest in professional development for curators concentrating on the art historical field. Funding for the first term of the position is provided by the KHR McNeely Family Foundation.
“We are thrilled by this next monumental step in our partnership with MoAD and greatly look forward to welcoming Cornelia to our team,” SFMOMA Director Christopher Bedford said in the announcement. “Telling a more expansive art history in our galleries and supporting a broad range of artistic voices and perspectives in our programming and collection is essential to our work at SFMOMA. I am energized by the opportunity to collaborate with Cornelia and MoAD to develop highly relevant and meaningful projects together.” CT
PHOTO: Cornelia Stokes. | Photo by Kelvin Bulluck
Exhibitions currently on view at SFMOMA include “Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love,” the first career-spanning exhibition of the artist, and “Kara Walker: Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine),” a mechanized installation on long-term view through Summer 2026
“Continuum: MoAD Over Time” celebrates the Museum of the African Diaspora’s 20th anniversary with a survey reflecting on its exhibition, programming, and institutional legacy. Curated by Key Jo Lee, “UNBOUND: Art, Blackness & the Universe” at MoAD explores Blackness and the cosmos
FIND MORE about Cornelia Stokes on her website and Instagram
BOOKSHELF
The catalog “Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love,” was published on the occasion of the exhibition. Also consider, “Amy Sherald: American Sublime.” The exhibition catalog documents the artist’s first major museum exhibition, which debuted last fall at SFMOMA. “Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine): A Respite for the Weary Time-Traveler. Featuring a Rite of Ancient Intelligence Carried out by the … of the Human Specious by Kara E-Walker” accompanies the artist’s installation at SFMOMA. Kara Walker’s work is also featured prominently in the “Monuments” exhibition catalog.
