The California African American Museum announced Wednesday that curator, writer, and editor Cameron Shaw will join the museum’s staff as deputy director and chief curator, effective Thursday.
A native of Los Angeles, Shaw was most recently the executive director of New Orleans-based Pelican Bomb, a nonprofit contemporary art organization that presented a forum for exhibitions, public programs, and arts journalism.
“On behalf of our board of directors and staff, we are delighted to welcome Cameron Shaw to CAAM,” said Executive Director George O. Davis. “Her deep commitments to contemporary art and visual culture, as well as community engagement, will greatly benefit our institution as we continue to present thoughtful exhibitions and dynamic public programs that examine African American art, history, and culture in the West.
Shaw responded: “Growing up in this city, with multigenerational family roots in South Los Angeles, it’s an honor to join CAAM at this unique moment in its history.”
Shaw holds a B.A. in History of Art from Yale University, where she worked at the Yale Center for British Art, and later took on roles in curatorial departments at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She was awarded a Creative Capital Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for Short-Form Writing in 2009 and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Art in America Writing Fellowship in 2015.
The California African American Museum is located in Exposition Park at the corner of Figueroa Street and Exposition Boulevard, west of the 110 (Harbor) Freeway. It serves to explore the art, history, and culture of African Americans, with an emphasis on California and the West. Chartered by the State of California in 1977, the museum began formal operations in 1981 and is a state-supported agency and a Smithsonian Affiliate.