The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has appointed Makeda Best as its new Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography, effective September. Best comes from the Oakland Museum of California, where she served as deputy director of curatorial affairs. She succeeds Clément Chéroux, who left in 2022, and takes over from acting chief curator Roxana Marcoci. Best previously held roles at the Harvard Art Museums, including curator of photography and interim head of the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art, where she led the ReFrame reinstallation initiative. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard and an MFA from CalArts.
This appointment matters because MoMA's photography department is one of the most influential in the world, and Best brings a distinctive interdisciplinary vision that connects photography to sociology, environmentalism, performance art, labor, and civic life. Her leadership is expected to shape the direction of photography curation and scholarship at a major institution, reflecting broader trends in how museums engage with photography as a medium for social and cultural understanding.