(New York, June 24, 2022)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today the appointment of Lisa Sutcliffe as Curator in the Department of Photographs, where her principal focus will be post-1960s photography and time-based media. Sutcliffe will also develop and oversee the regular rotation of works in The Met collection on view in the Museum’s Menschel Hall for Modern Photographs. She joins The Met from the Milwaukee Art Museum, where she served as Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Art.
“The Met has an exceptional collection of contemporary photography and time-based media and we look forward to the great knowledge and expertise that Lisa Sutcliffe will bring to this important role,” said Max Hollein, the Museum’s Marina Kellen French Director.
Jeff L. Rosenheim, Joyce Frank Menschel Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs, added, “A well-published scholar familiar with the entire literature of photography, Sutcliffe is deeply committed to the Museum’s core mission, expanding its public outreach, and enhancing the collection through strategic purchases and gifts. Sutcliffe will also play a key role in representing the Department of Photographs in the planning of The Met’s Tang Wing and the reconfiguration of the story and presentation of modern and contemporary art.”
Sutcliffe commented, “It is a true honor to join The Met. I look forward to collaborating with the incredible colleagues in the Department of Photographs, with artists, and across the Museum to engage local and international communities. At this pivotal moment, I am excited to rethink and develop these relationships and expand the narratives within The Met's extraordinary collection for present and future generations.”
Sutcliffe joined the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2012, and while there she oversaw the development of the museum’s Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts, a 10,000-square-foot space dedicated to time-based media. Previously, she was an Assistant Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and held a curatorial fellowship at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
Sutcliffe has organized many exhibitions, including a monumental commission with Derrick Adams entitled Our Time Together (2021); James Benning and Sharon Lockhart: Over Time (2019/2022); Susan Meiselas: Through a Woman’s Lens (2020); Sara Cwynar: Image Model Muse (2019); Naoya Hatakeyama: Natural Stories (2012); The Provoke Era: Postwar Japanese Photography (2009); and The San Quentin Project: Nigel Poor and the Men of San Quentin State Prison (2018), for which she organized a city-wide collaborative initiative on the role of the arts in criminal-justice reform. Sutcliffe has also acquired and shown film and video work by Charles Atlas, Rineke Dijkstra, Leslie Hewitt, Kahlil Joseph, Anthony McCall, and Ryan Trecartin. She has organized film screenings, lectures, and panels with internationally acclaimed artists and written about contemporary art and photography, including essays on Naoya Hatakeyama, Nigel Poor, and An-My Lê. Sutcliffe holds an MA in the history of art from Boston University and a BA in art history from Wellesley College.
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June 24, 2022
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