Dr. Asma Naeem is the Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director at the Baltimore Museum of Art. She is the first person of colour to lead the Baltimore Museum of Art.
She has held multiple curatorial positions and has given numerous lectures and published works on a wide range of subjects relevant to the area of museums. From June 2022, she acted as the museum’s interim co-director alongside Christine Dietze, moving from her previous role as the museum’s chief curator.
Naeem took on the role of director in February 2023, succeeding Christopher Bedford, who served as director from 2016 until 2022. Before joining the Baltimore Museum of Art, Naeem worked in various curatorial roles at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
“The BMA is committed to bringing diversity and equity into every aspect of its work,” said James D. Thornton, chair of the BMA’s Board of Trustees. “Since she joined the museum in 2018, Dr. Naeem has been integral to shaping this vision and to the strides we have made to realize it. Her dedication to this effort and her distinct perspective on how we can continue to create change made her the ideal choice to lead the BMA into the future. We are inspired and excited by the possibilities for our beloved museum with Dr. Naeem as our new director”.
“I am excited to now lead the Baltimore Museum of Art as we continue to explore, experiment, and envision what a museum can be and mean to its immediate community and broader networks of artists and partners,” said Naeem, on her appointment.
“As we move forward, there is an incredible opportunity to bring a greater depth of local and global voices into the dialogues about the history and evolution of art, about museums as community spaces, and about the relationship between internal culture to external experience – and in doing so create meaningful change in the field.”