Ernestine White-Mifetu ’99 Named Curator at Brooklyn Museum

Ernestine White-Mifetu ’99 (visual art) has been appointed Sills Foundation Curator of African Art at the Brooklyn Museum, which holds one of the largest collections of African art in the U.S. 

White-Mifetu will be instrumental in developing permanent galleries dedicated to the Museum’s Arts of Africa collection, which numbers over 6,000 works spanning 2,500 years and representing more than one hundred cultures.

Following a fundraising initiative, White-Mifetu will lead the architectural planning and reinstallation of the new galleries.

Previously, White-Mifetu served as the director of the William Humphreys Art Gallery, one of South Africa’s three national art museums, where she oversaw strategic management and operations. In her capacity as the institution’s chief curator, she was also responsible for developing curatorial and public engagement programs that ensured equitable representation of artists from a broad range of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.

She also served as the curator of contemporary paintings and sculpture at the Iziko South African National Gallery and as the deputy chairperson of the Artistic Committee for South Africa’s National Arts Festival (NAF).

She currently serves as a board member of the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM). She holds an MFA and BA (honors) specializing in curatorship from the University of Cape Town, South Africa; and a master printer certification from the Tamarind Institute, New Mexico.