A New York City museum has sparked resentment after hiring a white woman to curate its African art collection.
The Brooklyn Museum announced on Monday it has appointed Kristen Windmuller-Luna as a curator of its African art collection.
And though she is a qualified candidate, with a PhD in African art history from Princeton University and as a prior educator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the choice has left many on social media wondering why the museum did not hire an equally qualified person of color.
‘People from the African Diaspora are frustrated w/ white people being the gatekeepers of our narrative,’ Twitter user Kimberly Seldon wrote.
The news spread about the hire of the 31-year-old after an article in the Brooklyn Reader, which incorrectly named Windmuller-Luna and also made it seem that the museum hired a white man to curate its African photography collection, which is not true. The man was hired, but to curate the photography collection at the Brooklyn museum and not for the African art section.
Regardless of the inaccuracies – many Twitter users couldn’t get over that the museum chose to hire a white woman.
‘BETTER HEADLINE: “Brooklyn Museum Welcomes Two New Cultural Colonizers for African Art and Photography.”‘ Twitter user and Philadelphia journalist Ernest Owens tweeted.
‘Seriously, @brooklynmuseum? there goes the neighborhood for you.’
Multiple people on the social media site also pointed…
