Maurita Poole

Maurita N. Poole, Ph.D. is director and curator at Clark Atlanta University Art Museum (CAUAM). She received her doctorate in cultural anthropology from Emory University, and her professional training was attained at Williams College Museum of Art, The Walters Art Museum, The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and Spelman College Museum of Fine Art.
As the museum’s director, her emphasis is strengthening the organization’s infrastructure and providing opportunities for the next generation of museum professionals. She oversees the Tina Dunkley Fellowship in American Art, a collaborative Diversity in Art Museum Leadership Initiative (DAMLI) involving CAUAM, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), and the Zuckerman Museum of Art (ZMA). In addition, she is developing the Black Optics Artist Residency, a platform that connects artists of African descent from the American South to artists and institutions in the Global South.
Her curatorial projects focus on modern and contemporary African and African Diaspora art. Her exhibitions at CAUAM include Crafting for Life (2019), Soleil de la Conscience/Sun of Consciousness (2019), The Sweet Spot (2018), Frederick D. Jones and The Social Surreal (2017), and Bitter/Sweet (2016). At Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) where she served as the Andrew Mellon Curatorial Fellow, she curated Fathi Hassan: Migration of Signs (2015), Zanele Muholi (2014), and Myra Greene: Selections from My White Friends (2013). Her curatorial and institutional projects have been supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The National Endowment for the Humanities, Ford Foundation, and The Walton Family Foundation.