Sarah Newman, The James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art

Sarah Newman is the James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art and deputy head curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She joined the museum staff in September 2016. Her responsibilities include research, exhibitions and acquisitions related to the museum’s collection of contemporary art.   

Recent projects include “American Voices and Visions: Modern and Contemporary Art” (2023), the first phase of a multiyear renewal and reinstallation of the museum’s permanent collection galleries, and the exhibitions “Tiffany Chung: Vietnam, Past Is Prologue,” (2019) and “Kara Walker: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)” (2017). Newman served as the guest curator for “Theaster Gates: The Minor Arts,” (2017) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.  

Newman was the curator of contemporary art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art from 2006 to 2014. While at the Corcoran, Newman developed “NOW at the Corcoran,” a series of commissioned exhibitions and performances by emerging and midcareer artists including Mia Feuer, Spencer Finch, Ellen Harvey, Chris Martin and Enoc Perez. She also organized “30 Americans,” a survey of contemporary African American art (2011) and “Washington Color and Light: Works from the Washington Color School” (2010).  

Her research interests include the relationship between contemporary art and design, and the art of the 1980s. She has also taught at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, George Mason University and Georgetown University.  

Newman earned a bachelor’s degree from Williams College and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.