Emily Liebert

Contemporary Art

Curator of Contemporary Art

Emily Liebert is the CMA’s curator of contemporary art. Since joining the museum in 2017, she has curated and cocurated exhibitions by Nicole Eisenman, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Raúl de Nieves, and Laura Owens, as well as the group exhibition Picturing Motherhood Now. Liebert also cocurated the CMA’s first site-specific commission in its atrium, Ámà: The Gathering Place (2019), by Emeka Ogboh. She has expanded the CMA’s contemporary collection through acquisitions of work by Emma Amos, Dara Birnbaum, Melvin Edwards, Jenny Holzer, Rashid Johnson, Joan Jonas, Simone Leigh, Teresa Margolles, Kerry James Marshall, Ana Mendieta, Bruce Nauman, and Haegue Yang, and she led the reinstallation of the CMA’s contemporary galleries in 2021.

Before the CMA, Liebert worked at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) as curatorial assistant on Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends (2017). Liebert curated Multiple Occupancy: Eleanor Antin’s “Selves” (2013), which opened at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery and traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston; it was an International Association of Art Critics (AICA) Award finalist for “Best Monographic Museum Show in New York.” Previously, at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, Liebert was coordinator for education and public affairs. 

From 2008 to 2011, Liebert was a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney Museum, where she also participated in its Independent Study program. Her art criticism has appeared in Artforum and Frieze. Liebert holds a BA from Yale University and a PhD from Columbia University. She is a Fellow in the Center for Curatorial Leadership’s 2023 class.

Contact the Curator at: ContemporaryArt@clevelandart.org

Collection Area