Faculty
Dr. Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd
Asst. Professor of Art History/Curator of Univ. Art Collections
Xavier University of Louisiana
Bldg. 43, Room 100D
1 Drexel Drive, Box 137
New Orleans, La. 70125
(504) 520-5020
mbeaucha@xula.edu
Education:
Ph.D., Art History, 2011, Duke University
M.A., Art History, 1999, Columbia University
M.A., Visual Arts Administration (Museums), 1998, New York University
B.A., Art History, 1990, New York University
Curator and art historian Mora Beauchamp-Byrd is a specialist in African American Art, the art of the African Diaspora, 18th century British art and visual culture, and contemporary British art with a particular focus on British artists of African, Asian and Caribbean descent.
She is Assistant Professor of Art History, Department of Art, and Curator of Art Collections, Xavier University of Louisiana. Prior to that, she was Assistant Professor of Museum Studies at Southern University at New Orleans. From 2005-2007, she was Assistant Director for Mellon Initiatives in the Research and Academic Program (RAP) at The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA, where she served a principal role in developing collaborative links with institutions of art and art history outside of the US.
Prior to that position, she was Director and Curator of the Visual Arts Department at the Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, New Orleans, La. Ms. Beauchamp-Byrd has curated numerous exhibitions including Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966-1996; Struggle and Serenity: The Visionary Art of Elizabeth Catlett; Africa’s Legacy: Photographs from Brazil and Peru by Lorry Salcedo-Mitrani, Treasures from the Amistad Research Center, Martin Payton: Twenty Years of Sculpture, When I Am Not Here/Estoy Alla: Photographs by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Raised to the Trade: Creole Building Arts of New Orleans, andA Celebration of Faith: Henriette Delille and the Sisters of the Holy Family.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
“Yesterday’s Doorway: John Scott’s Iconographic Portraits of New Orleans,” in exhibition catalogue for A John Scott Retrospective, Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA, 2008
“Brides of Christ, Servants to the Poor: Tracing the Legacy of the Sisters of the Holy Family,” in exhibition catalogue for A Celebration of Faith: Henriette Delille and the Sisters of the Holy Family, New Orleans Museum of Art, Culture and History, 2008.
“Everyday People: Vanley Burke and the Ghetto as Genre,” in Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary, exhibition catalogue, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK, 2005.
“The Satirical Paintings and Engravings of William Hogarth,” in Anita Jeni McKenzie, ed., Contrasts, Textures and Hues: Exploring Early Printed Images of People of African and Asian Heritage, London: McKenzie Heritage Pictures, 2004.
“Raised to the Trade: An Introduction,” in Raised to the Trade: Creole Building Arts of New Orleans, exhibition catalogue, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA, 2002 .
“Under My Skin: Narratives of Migration, Classification and Contagion in the Art of Rina Banerjee,” in Antenna: The Art of Rina Banerjee, exhibition brochure, Bose Pacia Modern, New York, 2000.
“The Art of Ben Jones: Performance, Power and Cultural Survival,” in Sisters of Spirit: Art by Ben Jones, exhibition brochure, Jose Marti National Library, Havana, Cuba, 2000.
“`New’ England: Notes on Art, Migration and National Identity”, International Review of African American Art (vol. 15, no. 3, 1998).
“London Bridge: Late Twentieth-Century British Art and the Routes of National Culture,” exhibition catalogue, Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966–1996, Caribbean Cultural Center, 1997. Distributed by The University of Chicago Press, and edited by Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd and Franklin Sirmans.
“An Aesthetic of Survival: The Visionary Art of Elizabeth Catlett,” exhibition catalogue, Struggle and Serenity: The Visionary Art of Elizabeth Catlett, Caribbean Cultural Center, 1996.