“The Brooklyn Museum stands by our appointment of Dr. Kristen Windmuller-Luna as the Sills Family Consulting Curator of African Arts,” writes director of the Brooklyn Museum, Anne Pasternak — in response to recent backlash the museum received after hiring a white woman as their new African Arts curator.

Windmuller-Luna, who earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Art and Archaeology from Princeton University and her B.A. in the History of Art from Yale University, comes highly recommend by renowned Nigerian-American curator, scholar, and arts leader Okwui Enwezor. Enwezor was surprised and disappointed at the recent upheaval of his former student.

“I regret deeply the negative press and social media around the appointment of Dr. Kristen Windmuller-Luna, formerly a brilliant student of mine, to the position of the Sills Consulting Curator at the Brooklyn Museum. The criticism around her appointment can be described as arbitrary at best, and chilling at worst,” writes Enwezor. “There is no place in the field of African art for such a reductive view of art scholarship according to which qualified and dedicated scholars like Kristen should be disqualified by her being white, and a woman. African art as a discipline deserves better, especially since the field needs engaged young scholars in order to continue to grow and thrive. She has all of the necessary training to be an influential contributor to the field and has a deeply analytical mind. I am sure that she will be able to present the Brooklyn Museum’s world-renowned collection in a way that reflects both the historical problems surrounding early collecting and its meaning today in very complicated political times.”

Pasternak does however acknowledge that museums other institutions need to be diverse in leadership. In addition she states learning institutions need to support more persons of different backgrounds to acquire advanced degrees in art history.

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“Museums help shape the cultural imagination and contribute to society, so we have a responsibility to bring the broadest possible range of voices into our work. Cultural institutions also need to do much more to support young people of diverse backgrounds in pursuing advanced degrees in art history and succeeding in leadership positions,” Pasternak writes.

Pasternak also assures the public that the Brooklyn Museum is doing everything to be diverse in their hiring process. “Every day the Brooklyn Museum is working to advance these efforts and its longstanding and widely recognized commitment to equity in all its forms, including race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.”

To read Anne Pasternak’s full response, click here.