Tate has appointed Daisy Desrosiers as its new Britton Family Curator at Large, North America, strengthening the institution’s commitment to expanding how North American art is represented, researched and collected.
Based in the United States, Desrosiers will focus on developing North American works within Tate’s collection through new research, acquisitions and curatorial relationships — helping shape how modern and contemporary art from the region is understood within Tate’s international programme.
An interdisciplinary art historian, curator and museum leader, Desrosiers has built a reputation for artist-centred curatorial work that combines institutional vision with ambitious scholarship. Her recent projects have involved artists including Vivian Suter, Joan Jonas, Ming Smith, Christine Sun Kim, Alvaro Barrington, Nancy Spero and Naeem Mohaiemen, among many others. She also co-curated the 15th Shanghai Biennale, further cementing her international curatorial profile.
Since 2021, Desrosiers has served as Director and Chief Curator of The Gund at Kenyon College, where she has led a significant institutional transformation. She will continue her engagement with The Gund following her appointment at Tate, maintaining continuity with the museum’s programme while stepping into her new transatlantic role.
Desrosiers succeeds Christine Y. Kim, Tate’s inaugural Britton Family Curator at Large. Supported by the Britton Family Foundation, the role has become increasingly significant in helping Tate broaden its acquisitions and strengthen connections with artists, scholars and curators across North America.
Daisy Desrosiers said
“I am deeply honoured to join Tate at this moment. I’m particularly excited by the opportunity to engage more fully with the layered histories that shape the collection, bringing forward voices and connections that deepen and complicate how art is understood. I’m equally committed to contributing to how North American art can be more expansively perceived within the collection, tracing its multiple histories, entanglements and resonances across contexts. For me, a collection is a place of ongoing dialogue – where we not only reflect the world as it is, but imagine what it might become.”
That sentiment feels aligned with Tate’s evolving international vision. Over recent years, the institution has increasingly sought to diversify the stories told through its collection — moving beyond traditional art historical narratives toward a broader, more interconnected understanding of global modern and contemporary art.
With Desrosiers’ appointment, Tate gains a curator whose practice is deeply engaged with those wider histories, and whose approach to collecting is as much about expanding context as it is acquiring objects.
A thoughtful appointment — and one likely to have a lasting impact on Tate’s North American holdings.
