The Crocker is delighted to announce Francesca Wilmott as a new Associate Curator. Wilmott has worked in museums and galleries focused on modern and contemporary art across the country, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art in California. One of her areas of expertise is in artists working in Northern California in the 1960s and 1970s, which intersects in significant ways with the Crocker’s collection and exhibitions.
"It is an honor to join the Crocker Art Museum, an institution with an unparalleled collection of California art and a long history of organizing thought-provoking exhibitions,” Wilmott shares. “I look forward to partnering with artists and colleagues to develop projects spotlighting the diversity of post-war California art and placing it within global contexts and conversations."
As Associate Curator, Wilmott will assist the Crocker in telling the stories of overlooked artists, especially women artists and artists of color, through exhibitions, acquisitions, and publications. Her career has been devoted to centering marginalized histories and reimagining museums as spaces for social care, which aligns with the Crocker’s mission and curatorial goals.
Lial Jones, the Crocker’s Mort and Marcy Friedman Director & CEO adds, “We are delighted to welcome Francesca to the Crocker Art Museum. Her deep expertise in—and research into—the artists of our region makes her highly qualified to work with the Museum's vast collection of California art. I look forward to seeing how she will bring these resources to life for our visitors.”
Wilmott recently submitted her Ph.D. at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London, where her dissertation, Far Out California: A New Regionalism (1966–1976), focused on artists Stephen Kaltenbach, Gladys Nilsson, and Mike Henderson. Prior to her doctoral work, Wilmott served as Associate Curator at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art in Davis, organizing exhibitions such as Sadie Barnette: Dear 1968,... (2017), John Cage: 33 1/3 (2017), and Yoko Ono: Wish Trees for Peace (2016–17).
She holds a dual M.A. in Modern Art History, Theory, and Criticism and Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a B.A. in History of Art and Architecture from Miami University.
