The New York Public Library has appointed curator Joy Bivins as the new director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.
Previously Bivins served as the associate director of collections and research services at the Schomburg. Prior to that, she worked as the chief curator of the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina where she did design overview and created content for exhibitions. Before working at the IAAM, Bivins was the director of Curatorial Affairs at the Chicago History Museum.
Bivins will be the first woman to lead the Schomburg since Jean Blackwell Hutson in the 1980s. As director, Bivins is focused on expanding access to the Schomburg’s collections, reaching new patrons, and increasing the visibility of the center.
“The stories that the Schomburg’s collections tell are so important, and should be shared as broadly as possible. Making those collections as accessible as possible to those in Harlem, in New York City, and beyond must be a priority. It’s one thing to have collections. It’s another to make them accessible, and then another to make sense of what they mean to our current world. That’s what I’m excited to share,” Bivins said in a press release.
Joy Bivins will begin her tenure as director of the Schomburg Center on June 21, 2021.