Albuquerque Museum Announces New Head Curator

After a national search, Albuquerque Museum has selected Alicia Romero, PhD as its head curator. In addition to her new role, Romero will continue to be curator of history, a position she has held since 2023.

Born and raised in Albuquerque, Romero brings both national curatorial and academic experience as well as a local perspective to her presentation of history. She will oversee one of the region’s most important history, art, and archival photography collections of close to 300,000 works and will advance the museum’s goal to bring the world to Albuquerque and Albuquerque to the world through a full complement of diverse exhibitions.

Romero, who stepped into the position on November 1, will work closely with the director and the museum’s curatorial teams to continue the museum’s ongoing efforts as the city’s premier cultural institution.

“Serving as head curator and curator of history at the Albuquerque Museum is an incredible honor and one that I don’t take lightly,” said Romero. “I carry my community with me in everything I do at the museum and hope to encourage more residents and visitors to enjoy our world-class exhibitions and engaging programming.”

Romero received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from University of New Mexico, and a PhD in history from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

As curator of Spanish colonial, Mexican, and Chicano/a history and later head curator at the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe, Romero curated numerous exhibitions including Enchantorama! New Mexico Magazine Celebrates 100 (2023), The Santos of New Mexico (2023), In Search of Domínguez and Escalante: Photographing the 1776 Expedition Through the Southwest (2021), Curative Powers: New Mexico’s Hot Springs (2022), Looking Back: Reflecting on Collections (2020), The Massacre of Don Pedro Villasur (2019), We the Rosies: Woman at Work (2019), and Working on the Railroad (2019). 

In 2019 she collaborated with the Albuquerque Museum on a major exhibition and book, A Past Rediscovered: Highlights From the Palace of the Governors. Her research and curatorial area of interest include Albuquerque and New Mexico history, popular culture, labor history, memory studies, immigration history since 1848, and Mexican history. She has also taught courses on Western civilization, U.S. history, gender and the media, and Mexican American/Chicano/Hispanic history for UNM, Santa Fe Community College, and UC Santa Cruz.

“Alicia is a thoughtful scholar and generous collaborator — a local historian with a global perspective that brings out the humanity in her telling of regional stories,” says Albuquerque Museum Director Andrew Connors. “We are so pleased that after serving as the curator of history here at the museum and curating such important exhibitions as Puertas fronterizas /Border Doors and Open to All: A Century of Access at Special Collections Library, Alicia is willing to take on this important leadership role in guiding the museum’s curatorial team and shaping our intellectual direction for the future.”