Lehti Keelmann Appointed Assistant Curator of Western Art at the University of Michigan Museum of Art

The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) today announced that Lehti Keelmann has been appointed the institution's Assistant Curator of Western Art, overseeing UMMA's collection of European art spanning the medieval period through the 20th century.

	Lehti Keelmann. Photograph courtesy of UMMA.

With the appointments of Laura De Becker, the inaugural Helmut and Candis Stern Associate Curator of African Art, and Jennifer M. Friess, Assistant Curator of Photography, this is the third curatorial posting at UMMA in a year.

UMMA Interim Director Kathy Huss said, "We are delighted to welcome these three outstanding curatorial voices to the Museum, joining Natsu Oyobe, who was promoted to full Curator of Asian Art last May. Each is involved in organizing captivating exhibitions opening in October and developing innovative programming for the future. This is an auspicious time for UMMA as the multi-faceted collection continues to grow, we have our first endowed curatorial position thanks to the generosity of Helmut and Candis Stern, and a diversity of exhibitions, public programs, and initiatives is developed and launched."

Keelmann, who earned her Ph.D. in the History of Art at the University of Michigan, served as the Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow in the History of Art at UMMA during the 2014-15 academic year. In partnership with Senior Curator Carole McNamara (now Emerita), Oyobe, and Deputy Director for Education Ruth Slavin, Keelmann researched and co-curated, Soviet Constructivist Posters: Branding the New Order (2015). She has worked at the National Gallery of Estonia and the Niguliste Museum in Tallinn, Estonia. Keelmann is curating the upcoming exhibition Europe on Paper: The Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection, part of UMMA's Permanent Collection. The exhibition opens October 14, 2016, and remains on view through January 29, 2017.

Joining UMMA in September 2015, De Becker earned her Ph.D. from the Sainsbury Research Unit, University of East Anglia (UK). She was an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wits Art Museum, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where she researched and curated a number of exhibitions including Mapping/Making (2014) showcasing different genres in African art, and Lifeline (2014) for the Standard Bank Gallery exploring the concept of object biographies. De Becker, who plans to expand the collection with work from East and South Africa, is curating Traces: Reconstructing the History of a Chokwe Mask, from UMMA's African Art collection, tracing the object's history from its origins in Angola to its arrival in UMMA's Permanent Collection in 2005. The exhibition opens October 21, 2016, and remains on view through January 22, 2017.

Friess, appointed to her post in January 2016, is currently a Ph.D. candidate in History of Art at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. She began her graduate studies in 2010, following a Master's degree from Case Western Reserve University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She worked at the George Eastman House; International Museum of Photography; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland; and, most recently, at the Spencer Museum at the University of Kansas. Friess is curating the upcoming exhibition The Aesthetic Movement in America: Artists of the Photo-Secession,from UMMA's Permanent Collection. The exhibition opens October 28, 2016, and remains on view through March 12, 2017.

Oyobe earned her Ph.D. in the History of Art from the University of Michigan. Specializing in modern and contemporary Japanese art, Oyobe has curated numerous Japanese art exhibitions at UMMA, including Wrapped in Silk and Gold: A Family Legacy of Japanese Kimono of the 20th Century (2010) and Paramodel (2014), the first American exhibition of the Kansai-based artist collaborative. Oyobe is also involved in projects of variouscultures and time spans, that included the solo exhibition of Korean andAmerican artist duo Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries (2012), Isamu Noguchi and Qi Baishi: Beijing 1930 (2013), andXu Weixin: Monumental Portraits (2016). Oyobe is curating the upcoming exhibitionJapanese Prints of Kabuki Theater from the Collection of the University of Michigan Museum of Art. The exhibition opens October 15, 2016, and remains on view through January 29, 2017.

Huss added, "The University, celebrating its bicentennial in 2017, placed art as one of the founding pillars of a University of Michigan education - developing global, well-rounded citizens. The curatorial team looks forward to building on that legacy with rigorous and thought-provoking programming."

University of Michigan Museum of Art

One of the leading university art museums in the country, UMMA was established in 1856, moved to its current location in 1910, and added the Frankel Family Wing in 2009. The Museum's collection - African; American; Asian; European; Middle Eastern; modern and contemporary; and prints, drawings, and photography - is of exceptional breadth, comprising more than 21,000 objects that span cultures, eras, and media. Works from Whistler and Picasso to Nevelson and Gates, Chinese and Japanese paintings and ceramics, and sculpture from central Africa are among the finest in North America. Special exhibitions, gallery installations, innovative interpretive strategies, and programming showcase UMMA's collections and engage 250,000 visitors annually. The Museum - among the oldest university art museums in the nation - serves as the catalyst for cultural understanding at the University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor community, and is a physical and virtual destination for scholars and art-lovers from around the globe. Admission is free.
umma.umich.org