Solveig Nelson, a postdoctoral fellow at Dartmouth College, will becoming Pomona College’s Benton Museum of Art’snew full-time curator of photography and new media in August.
“I’m thrilled that Solveig will help us shape a vision for the further development of our photography and new media collections, the largest areas in our overall holdings,” museum director Victoria Sancho Lobis wrote in a news release. “With more than 8,000 photographs in our collection — many of them significant gifts — we have recognized an urgent need for more dedicated stewardship to integrate these works into exhibition projects and teaching efforts. Solveig’s breadth of experience, deep knowledge of photographic and filmmaking techniques, and consummate poise as a collaborator will undoubtedly contribute to the Benton’s overall mission and institutional profile.”
Nelson earned a Ph.D. in art history from The University of Chicago and is a curator, scholar, and art critic who has curated multiple exhibitions at The Art Institute of Chicago. She spent nine years curating events for Chicago literary organizations and previously held positions as an Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow in time-based media at The Art Institute of Chicago and as a fellow in the department of photography at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“Histories of photography raise important questions about contemporary artists’ practices of making, critiquing, and circulating images,” Nelson wrote in a news release. “As a curator and critic, I aim to utilize archival and object-based research to center perspectives that have been treated as if marginal to art history. It is an honor to be able to pursue such research with the collection of the Benton and to collaborate with such exceptional colleagues, faculty, and students. I look forward to working closely with artists and the Pomona College community to develop new projects that activate the Benton’s site and collections in thought-provoking ways.”
Nelson will join the Benton for its annual AllPaper Seminar, a program for emerging professionals, in June. For more information, visit pomona.edu/museum.