Ramona Austin

Ramona Austin has over three decades of professional experience in the arts and arts education. Currently Ms. Austin is Senior Curator for the new Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries at Old Dominion University as well as a consultant in the museum field. From 2001 to 2004, she was the Director of Hampton University Museum and Archives, among the nation’s leading Historic Black Colleges and Universities and a foremost national art and archival resource. At The Art Institute of Chicago (1987-1994), she was Associate Curator for African Art, and at the Dallas Museum of Art (1994-2001), The Margaret McDermott Associate Curator for African Art. At both institutions her position initiated the first full-time curatorship for her field. Austin also worked closely with museum education throughout her career producing award winning work. Her academic interests bridge an expertise in the arts of the Kongo peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) among whom she has done fieldwork as a Fulbright scholar, to the African diaspora in the Americas, to African American self-taught and contemporary art. She is published in the fields of African art and African American vernacular art as well as cultural studies. Ramona Austin is PhD (ABD) from Yale University in African Art.

Austin has lectured extensively on African art, African retentions in African American art and the artistic traditions of the African Diaspora. As a seasoned museum professional, Austin has also been called upon to lecture on the efficacy of multi-disciplinary education that uses the arts as an instructional tool. In these areas of expertise, she has lectured extensively across the United States in major museums and institutions of higher learning.