MOCAD ANNOUNCES JOVA LYNNE AS INAUGURAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Lynne will co-lead with Marie Madison-Patton, who became Chief Operating Officer January 1, 2023

MARCH 28, 2023

DETROIT, MI — The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is thrilled to announce that effective April 3, 2023, Jova Lynne will serve as MOCAD’s first Artistic Director. Lynne has a long curatorial history with the Museum; She first joined the institution in 2017 as a Ford Foundation Curatorial Fellow and in 2019 became the Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator.

Lynne will co-lead the museum alongside Marie Madison-Patton, who became Chief Operating Officer effective January 1, 2023 and has held leadership roles at the museum since 2012. Lynne will lead the curatorial team to develop the Museum’s artistic vision, exhibition schedule and accompanying programming and Madison-Patton will oversee the Museum’s operations and development activities. MOCAD also recently brought on Paul Andrews to serve as Director of Development. Andrews comes to MOCAD from the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, NY, where he served as Chief Development Officer. He has nearly a decade of experience leading fundraising efforts at arts and culture organizations primarily in Michigan. Andrews reports to Madison-Patton.

Lynne completed a bachelor’s degree in video art and education at Hampshire College and a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art. In her tenure at MOCAD, Lynne curated Nep Sidhu: Paradox of Harmonics, dream hampton’s Fresh Water, 2+2=8: Thirty Years Heidelberg, Dual Vision, Amna Asghar: Well Wishes, and many more. Lynne has previously worked at the Museum of Moving Image in Queens, New York and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California. She has led international media-based projects in Kingston, Jamaica and Berlin, Germany. Her experience as both artist and curator informs her mission to facilitate inclusive and creative ecosystems.

“We are thrilled that Jova is returning to MOCAD as our Artistic Director,” said Lynn Arsht Gandhi, Co-Chair of the Museum’s Board of Directors “Her dedication to contemporary art and community building in Detroit is undeniable and will be a critical part of the museum’s continued success.”

“Jova brings a superb curatorial eye along with deep knowledge and connections within both the local Detroit community and national artistic community” said Dr. Charles Boyd, Co-Chair of the Museum’s Board of Directors. “Her style of meaningful engagement brings out the best in our presenting artists and internal team and is a crucial part of nurturing the premiere exhibitions MOCAD is known for.”

MOCAD’s spring season opens on April 14 with the following shows:

• Sydney G. James will present Girl Raised In Detroit  in the Woodward Gallery.
• Liz Cohen will present Café Pan-Soviético Americano  in the Central Gallery.
• Gina Osterloh will present Gina Osterloh: Her Demilitarized Zone / Image Without Weapon  in the Front Gallery.
• Jennifer Harge and longtime collaborator and filmmaker Devin Drake will present an additional chapter within a .fable series, a video titled a clearing  in the Black Box Gallery.
• Currently at the Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead, is a MOCAD collaboration with The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum and the Michigan Justice Fund titled Free Your Mind: Art and Incarceration in Michigan.
• Also on review at the Mike Kelley Mobile Homestead  lawn is the newly installed Kennedy Yanko’s Tilted Lift, an outdoor sculpture commissioned for Monumental Tour, a traveling exhibition series contributing objects to the public realm that tell a more honest and representative story of our shared history.

MOCAD’s spring/summer 2023 exhibitions are made possible with generous lead support from Pensole Lewis HBCU, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Michigan Justice Fund at the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. Additional support has been provided by the Kettering Family Foundation and Linda and David Whitaker.

Download the press release.