Draft:Asma Naeem

Naeem was born in Karachi, Pakistan, immigrated to the United States with her Indian parents in 1971, and was raised in Baltimore, Maryland.^[2] Naeem earned a B.A. in art history and political science from Johns Hopkins University in 1991.^[3] After graduation, she interned at a law firm in Singapore specializing in intellectual property. She then pursued a legal career, completing a summer internship in the Homicide Division of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office and receiving her J.D. from Temple University in 1995.^[2]

In 2003, Naeem earned a Master of Arts in art history from American University in Washington, DC. She completed her Ph.D. in art history at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2011, with a minor in 19th-century French art. Her doctoral dissertation, The Imagery of the Ear: Listening and Sound in American Art, 1847-1897, explores the relationships between sound and technology and race, class, and gender in 19th-century American painting. It was later published as Out of Earshot: Sound, Technology, and Power in American Art, 1860–1900 (University of California Press, 2020).^[4]

Before pursuing a career in arts and culture, Naeem worked as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York from 1995 to 1999, and as Assistant Bar Counsel in Washington, D.C., from 2000 to 2009. Her time spent working with clients and colleagues in the legal system shaped her beliefs in the importance of public service.^[1]

Following the completion of her Ph.D., Naeem taught art history at the Catholic University of America and the University of Maryland. She began her curatorial career as an intern at the Baltimore Museum of Art, and then as a fellow and researcher at the National Gallery of Art.^[5]

In 2014, she joined the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. as curator of prints, drawings, and media arts, a role she held until 2018. During this period, she oversaw acquisitions and long-term loans that expanded representation within the collection with portraits of women and artists of color. She also helped initiate the long-term loan of a painted portrait of manumitted Yarrow Mamout, an enslaved man who later gained his freedom.^[6] At the National Portrait Gallery, Naeem curated the exhibition Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now, featuring historical and contemporary works by Kara Walker, Kumi Yamashita, and other artists. She also co-curated UnSeen: Our Past in a New Light, which explored the work of Titus Kaphar and Ken Gonzales-Day.^[3]

Naeem joined the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2018 as the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Chief Curator. In this position, she prioritized acquisitions and exhibitions featuring artists historically underrepresented in the museum’s collection, particularly women, artists of color, and Baltimore-based artists such as Valerie Maynard to expand public awareness of their work.^[7] She also organized solo exhibitions on global artists including Candice Breitz, Isaac Julien, and Salman Toor. In 2022, she co-organized Guarding the Art, an exhibition curated by BMA security staff, and in 2023 co-curated The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, which examined the hip-hop's influence on contemporary art, fashion, and culture.^[8]

Naeem was named the BMA's interim co-director in 2022, and was appointed the museum's Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director in 2023, following a national search.^[1] Under her leadership, the BMA has placed increasing emphasis on expanding the collection with global acquisitions, partnering with educational and community organizations, and supporting contemporary artists through acquisitions, commissions, and residencies.^[9]

Among the major initiatives led by Naeem are Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum, which focused exhibitions and programs on historic and contemporary Native American and Indigenous artists in 2024,^[10] and Turn Again to the Earth, which encompassed a series of climate-focused exhibitions, the BMA’s first sustainability plan, and an eco-challenge for other Baltimore-area organizations.^[11] In 2025, Naeem brought Amy Sherald: American Sublime to Baltimore and curated the BMA’s presentation of the exhibition.^[12]

Naeem serves on the Board of Trustees of the Association of Art Museum Directors and is a director of the Baltimore Convention and Tourism Board.^[13][14]

Naeem was named a Center for Curatorial Leadership Fellow in 2020. She received a Capitol Historical Society Fellowship in 2011 and her dissertation research was supported by a Luce Dissertation Research Award. She also held research fellowships at the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.^{[15] [16]}

• Jordan Casteel. Phaidon Press, 2025.
• Hew Locke: Passages "The Tourists," Yale Center for British Art, 2025.
• The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century. DAP/Gregory R. Miller, 2023.
• Salman Toor: No Ordinary Love. Gregory R. Miller, 2022.
• Out of Earshot: Sound, Technology, and Power in American Art, 1860–1900. University of California Press, 2020.
• Valerie Maynard: Lost and Found, co-editor with Leslie Cozzi. Baltimore Museum of Art, 2020.

Naeem lives in Maryland with her husband and has three adult children.^[1]