Jeremiah William McCarthy Appointed Chief Curator

GREENSBURG, Pennsylvania (March 8, 2022) – The Westmoreland Museum of American Art is pleased to announce the appointment of Jeremiah William McCarthy as Chief Curator. McCarthy will begin in the role on April 19. He joins The Westmoreland after a collaboration with The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund where he is guest curating the inaugural exhibition of the campus’s new David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center.

“I am honored and delighted to be joining The Westmoreland community. I look forward to deepening the Museum’s commitment to activate its art in ways that expand the definition of America for the 21st century. The field of American art is in a period of self-reflection, and I hope to aid the Museum in becoming a powerful voice in this national conversation,” commented McCarthy.

Among other duties at The Westmoreland, he will be responsible for generating original exhibitions for a dynamic and rotating permanent collection presentation, identifying compelling exhibitions to bring to the Museum, and organizing traveling exhibitions that fulfill the Museum’s mission and strategic objectives.

“We are thrilled to welcome Jeremiah to The Westmoreland to hold this important position. His work will help shape the future of our organization and continue us on a path of broadening the canonical traditions of presenting and interpreting American art,” stated Anne Kraybill, Richard M. Scaife Director/CEO.

McCarthy will succeed Chief Curator Barbara L. Jones, who is retiring in early April after a nearly 27-year tenure at The Westmoreland.
 
About Jeremiah McCarthy
Jeremiah William McCarthy is consulting curator for The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. He is presently co-organizing Inspired Encounters: Women Artists and the Legacies of Modern Art (2022–23), the inaugural exhibition of the campus’s new David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center in Tarrytown, NY. Prior to his work for The Fund, he served as curator at the National Academy of Design and associate curator at the American Federation of Arts. Major exhibitions he has organized or co-organized include For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design (2019–22), which travelled to eight museums in all five regions of the United States, and Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900 (2017–18; with Laurence Madeline and Suzanne Ramljak), which was awarded “Best Painting Show of 2018” by The Boston Globe. He also edited and contributed to both accompanying scholarly catalogues, published by Yale University Press. Previously, he has worked in the curatorial and education departments of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and he was an inaugural teaching fellow at The Frick Collection, New York. He received a B.A. in art history from The Macaulay Honors College at CUNY and an M.A. in art history from Hunter College. Alongside his curatorial work, he has taught in museums extensively, and most recently as a visiting lecturer in art history at The City College of New York. He has also mentored as a supervisor in the Diversity in Arts Leadership program administered by Americans for the Arts.