The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) has announced Jova Lynne as its first artistic director, as the Detroit news outlet first reported. DBusiness. Lynn came to the museum in 2017 as a Ford Foundation curator before rising to become Susan Hillberry Senior Curator in 2019. She will begin her new role on April 3. As Artistic Director, she will work alongside Chief Operating Officer Marie Madison-Patton: Lynne will lead the curatorial team, overseeing exhibition programming, while Madison-Patton will take charge of operations and development.
“Detroit is a city close to my heart and one that has been integral to my growth as a curator and an artist,” Lynne said.
Born in New York, Lynne holds a BA in Video Art and Education from Hampshire College and an MFA in Photography from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Prior to joining MOCAD, Lynne worked at the Museum of Moving Image in Queens, New York, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California. She is co-founder of FLEX COLLECTIVE and Bulk Space Artist Residency. Lynne was one of three black conservatives who left in the spring of 2020 to protest the actions of then-executive Elysa Borowy-Reeder. After Borowy-Reeder was fired following an investigation into his behavior, Lynne income at the establishment in the fall of 2020. In early 2022, she leaves to become director of Temple Contemporary, the gallery affiliated with the Tyler School of Contemporary Art and Architecture in Philadelphia.
