Kevin D. Dumouchelle is the curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art, where he is leading the museum’s curatorial program. His most recent exhibition, Heroes: Principles of African Greatness, which ran from 2019 to 2022, was recognized with awards for curatorial achievement by both ACASA and the Smithsonian Excellence in Exhibitions awards committee. Dumouchelle was the lead curator for Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa’s Arts (2017), the museum’s award-winning permanent galleries, which present the full range of time, place, and media represented in the National Museum’s collection. He additionally served as coordinating curator for Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange in Medieval Saharan Africa (2020-2022), as he did for World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean (2018) and Good as Gold: Fashioning Senegalese Women (2018). Future projects include Tsedaye Makonnen—Sanctuary :: መቅደስ :: Mekdes (Dec. 2024) and the exhibition and publication Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art, which opens in May 2025.

Previously, Dumouchelle served a decade at the Brooklyn Museum as the curator in charge of the arts of both Africa and the Pacific Islands. At Brooklyn, he conceived two award-winning re-installations of the African collection: African Innovations (2011) and Double Take: African Innovations (2014). He also curated the Brooklyn Museum presentations of Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui (2013) and Disguise: Masks and Global African Art (2016). He has written books and articles on a range of topics on both contemporary and historical African art, including African Art Works: Artists Creating Change with the Jack Faxon Collection (2025) and the Heroes catalogue (2023) at the Smithsonian; Power Incarnate: Allan Stone’s Collection of Sculpture from the Congo (2011) at the Bruce Museum; and edited and contributed to African Art: A Century at the Brooklyn Museum (2009), among others.

Dumouchelle earned a Ph.D, M.Phil., and M.A. in Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University. His doctoral research in Ghana examined architectural history in Asante. He is also the recipient of a first-class master’s degree in history from Oxford University and a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University,

Article

• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2017. "Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa's Arts." Tribal Arts, 21-4, (85) 86–95. 2017
• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2013. "Curating African Art History." African Arts, 46, (3) 7–8. 2013
• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2012. "In Memoriam: William Siegmann (1943-2011)." African Arts, 45, (3). 2012
• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2011. "African Art in Detail." African Arts, 44, (2) 93–94. 2011
• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2011. "African Innovations." Tribal Arts, 15-4, (61) 92–101. 2011
• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2010. "Traditions of Modernity: Currents in Architectural Expression in Kumasi." Ghana Studies, 12-13 155–188. 2010

Book

• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2021. Heroes: Principles of African Greatness. Munich, Germany: Hirmer Publishers. 2021
• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2015. African Art at the Barnes Foundation, Clarke, Christa and Dolkart, Judith, editors. Philadelphia: Barnes Foundation. 2015
• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2014. Brooklyn Museum Handbook, Stayton, Kevin, editor. Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum. 2014
• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2012. Collecting for the Future: a Decade of Collection Highlights, Stayton, Kevin, editor. Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum. 2012
• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2011. Power incarnate: Allan Stone's collection of sculpture from the Congo. Greenwich, Conn.: Bruce Museum. 2011

Chapter

• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2025. "Resisting Answers: Two Songye Figures in the National Museum of African Art." In The World of Songye: Passions and Collections. Neyt, François and Vanderstraete-Van, Custem Anne, editors. Brussels, Belgium: Mercatorfonds. 2025
• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2020. "Thinking With Masks: Surveying the Literature on Bifwebe." In Kifwebe: A Century of Songye and Luba Masks. Neyt, François, editor. 302–319. Milan, Italy: 5 Continents Editions. 2020
• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2014. "Bill Siegmann: a Connoisseur's Curator." In Visions from the forest: the art of Liberia and Sierra Leone. Grootaers, Jan-Lodewijk and Bortolot, Alexander, editors. Minneapolis, MN: Minneapolis Institute of Arts. 2014
• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2009. "Beyond the Body Boundary: Queer[y]ing the Photographs of Rotimi Fani-Kayode and Samuel Fosso." In Expressions of the body: representations in African text and image. Baker, Charlotte, editor. 63–93. Oxford ; New York: Peter Lang. 2009
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Review

• Dumouchelle, Kevin D. 2012. [Book review] "African Goldweights: Miniature Sculptures from Ghana 1400-1900." African Arts, 45, (2), 92–93. 2012

Kevin D. Dumouchelle, PhD

Curator

National Museum of African Art

Smithsonian Institution

MRC 708, P.O. Box 37012

950 Independence Avenue, SW

Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

Kevin D. Dumouchelle, PhD

Curator

National Museum of African Art

Smithsonian Institution

MRC 708, P.O. Box 37012

950 Independence Avenue, SW

Washington, D.C. 20013-7012