Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi, an artist and specialist in modern and contemporary African and African diaspora arts, has been appointed as the Hood Museum’s first African art curator. Born in Nigeria, Nzewi has worked in museums in South Africa, Senegal and the United States. He will assume his position on August 26.

Caela Murphy: This is a historic moment for the museum. How do you feel about being the first person to hold this new position?

Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi: It’s an exciting situation to be in, but also one that comes with a lot of responsibility. I hope be able to manage the expectations, excitement and responsibility that comes with this. I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for me to chart a new trajectory for the museum, so I’m looking forward to what I can do. I also think that given that I am the first African art curator, I’m going to bring something different to the job. I don’t know yet what that will be, but I’ll know when I get there.

CM: What specific responsibilities will you take on as the collection’s first curator?

USN: Part of my job is to take charge of the collection’s pieces, which span different historical moments. The first set of objects was collected in the late 19th century, so we have pre-colonial pieces in addition to modern and contemporary pieces. It’s my job to take care of those and try to expand them. My position also entails facilitating the teaching of those objects for faculty. I will be organizing exhibitions around objects as a way of introducing African history and art to the immediate Dartmouth community and the wider community.

CM: The Hood’s African art collection is quite extensive. How do you hope to represent this diversity in the exhibits that you curate?

USN: I plan to use a few different models to talk about Africa to the academic community that uses the museum. First, I plan to do exhibitions that map across time. For instance, you can use canonical objects that span from the pre-colonial to the present to trace ideas as they are depicted in African art. Also, one can try to take the time period of the 1980s and do an exhibition about the issues affected Africa in that period. In the 1980s, there was a lot of political and economic anxiety, so one can do an exhibition where you look at art in the different sub-regions of Africa and see how those artists dealt with that political and economic anxiety. The third model is to get contemporary artists and see their response to historical moments.

CM: How do you see your relationship with students and faculty? How do you hope to engage them in the exhibits?

USN: First and foremost, the Hood is a teaching museum, so its role in the academic environment is to be there for students. Its exhibitions are didactic and pursue a strategy of getting people to know different cultures. Faculty currently bring students to museums as part of the academic programming, and I plan to enhance that program. I also hope to do exhibitions that can directly fit some of the courses planned by faculty, so that it becomes easier for students to grasp the lectures by visiting the museum. That’s really what the museum does, and I can only hope to enhance that.

CM: Throughout your career, you’ve worked in museums all over the world. What drew you to the Hood in New Hampshire?

USN: I’ve never been involved with university or teaching museum, so the strategy will be different. That was the initial attraction: how can one use the museum for academic purposes beyond the civic side, which is the conventional context of museums? When you engage in a teaching museum you engage in the museum’s civic side but also as part of the educational curriculum. Given my interest in scholarship, this is a good field for me. I thought it would bring my different interests together. I’m really glad and excited to have been offered the job and I look forward to getting started.

CM: In addition to studying art history, you are also a practicing visual artist. How will those two roles contribute to your role as curator?

USN: As an artist, I tend to understand material better. I have a different sense of the artistic process, and I think that knowledge is going to be very useful in organizing exhibitions and in dealing with artists. Because I’m one of them, I’ll always think as a curator but also as an artist, considering how I can get the public to understand the artist’s position, and also how I can get the artist to understand the nature of the art form. I think my background will be very helpful in planning exhibitions of this academic institution for the public.

CM: How would you describe the presence of African art in the arts world today?

USN: There’s been an increase in the stability of African artists and African art. Someone like El Anatsui, who is a contemporary artist, is no longer described as an African artist but as a contemporary artist. That tells you how things have shifted in international arts world since the 1990s. You find a lot of Africans artists gaining tremendous recognition, unlike ten years ago where that wasn’t the case. Things are changing and evolving and I think that is the direction in which the Hood wants to go. The Hood wants to expand its collection of modern and contemporary African art, because it’s a reflection of what is happening in the arts world. I think it’s exciting to be involved here at the moment when this is happening.