By Alex Greenberger, For Art News

E. Carmen Ramos, curator of Latinx art and acting chief curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, has been named chief curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The news was revealed Thursday in a New York Times interview with the NGA’s director Kaywin Feldman. Ramos begins in her new role this August.

According to Feldman, Ramos is the first woman to hold the position, as well as the first person of color to do so. Her hire is part of a push to diversify the museum’s leadership. “I inherited a leadership team that was 100 percent white,” Feldman told the Times, “and now it’s 57 percent people of color.”

In a statement, Ramos said, “I am honored to join the National Gallery at this transformative moment in our nation’s history, when museums are recommitting themselves to deeper inclusive practices, collections, and exhibitions. It is important that we continue to expand the boundaries of art history, making sure our scholarship reflects a fuller and more complex picture of our nation and world.

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