Dr. Kymberly Pinder

Currently, Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico, Dr. Kymberly Pinder will join the Massachusetts College of Art and Design as provost and senior vice president after twenty-five years in academia in 2019. While at UNM, she was also the interim director of the university's art museum for two years. Before moving to New Mexico, she was at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she served as faculty, department chair and graduate program. She received her Ph.D. in Art History from Yale University. Dr. Pinder writes, teaches and lectures on race and religion in American Art. She edited Race-ing Art History: Critical Readings in Race and Art History (Routledge, 2002) and most recently authored Painting the Gospel: Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago (University of Illinois, 2016); Her work has also appeared in The Art Bulletin, The Art Journal, Third Text, Outsider, and The African American ReviewAs an administrator and mural scholar, she has been committed to community engagement and public pedagogy. Partnering the mayors office, she opened a student-run gallery in downtown Albuquerque. In 2017-18 she taught two mural classes; one resulted in students painting a mural in collaboration of a healthcare facility in downtown Albuquerque and the other addressed a controversial 1930s mural in the university's library. Such activities garnered Dr. Pinder an Albuquerque Business First Women of Influence award this year.