Historian Alicia Romero named head curator of Albuquerque Museum

The Albuquerque Museum announced on Monday that Alicia Romero has been named the museum’s new head curator following a nationwide search. In addition to her head curator role, Romero will continue to serve as the curator of history, a position she has held at the museum since 2023.

Romero, who was born and raised in Albuquerque, and whose family has deep roots in northern New Mexico, believes her cultural connections to the area will serve her well in the new role.

“I feel very honored to be in this position (as someone coming from) this community. In some ways, I’m speaking to the community. In some ways, I’m speaking for the community,” Romero said. “I also feel a very high level of responsibility and obligation to the community to get the stories that we tell right.”

Museum Director Andrew Connors praised Romero’s curation of such important Albuquerque Museum exhibitions as “Puertas fronterizas/Border Doors” and “Open to All: A Century of Access at Special Collections Library.”

“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,” Connors said.

Walking through the exhibition “Open to All,” about the Special Collections Library, Romero spoke about her approach to curation, which not only involves meticulous research but an eye for interesting objects.

“What does a library collect? Documents and books. So, I had to really think creatively about what kind of objects (I could include). Since we’re a museum, I can’t just show documents,” she said. “I like to put a human touch, and to humanize these stories. So, having a collection of cat-eye glasses — that’s what these women would have worn.”

Relatable objects, she said, help visitors imagine the day-to-day lives of “these fearless leaders who made our library system what it is today.”

Romero was quick to allay potential concerns from local art lovers that the appointment of a historian to the head curator role might signify a shift in institutional priorities.

“We’ve always been a museum dedicated to art and history,” Romero said. “What this position has done, and what it will do, is just continue to oversee the curatorial and collections department, and to really look at the exhibition schedule on a more holistic level and make sure we are doing exhibitions that reach different audiences.”

Romero spoke highly of her predecessor, Josie Lopez, who also served as the museum’s curator of art, calling Lopez’s exhibitions “beautiful and really thought-provoking.”

“She did an incredible job of turning a national focus on Albuquerque,” Romero added.

A national search for the museum’s next curator of art is ongoing.

Romero said she hopes the art and history sides of the museum will reinforce and enrich each other.

“I try to offer a complement, if I can, to what people are seeing in the big art exhibitions,” Romero said. “So, even if art takes top billing — and sometimes history will take top billing, too — we try to offer a balance, as much as we can.”

Prior to coming to the Albuquerque Museum, Romero served as the head curator at the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe. She is an expert on Spanish colonial, Mexican and Chicano/a history, and her doctoral research at the University of California, Santa Cruz, focused on New Mexican history.

Romero has already brought her knowledge to bear on the museum’s permanent exhibition of Albuquerque’s history, “Only in Albuquerque.” She plans to make additional changes to the exhibition’s decade-old displays to bring them in line with current scholarship.

“There’s stuff that needs modification. It’s great, but there’s stuff we need to fix,” she said. “For instance, we’re standing in a little scene about ranching around the South Valley. And this is a charro outfit. This is not something that you would wear on the ranch. This is something that you would wear for show.”

Additionally, Romero plans to make the exhibition “a little more representative” of New Mexico’s cultural diversity.

“We are far beyond the tri-cultural myth,” she said.

Romero’s overarching vision across all museum departments, she said, will be to promote critical thinking.

“I’m a social and cultural historian, so what I try to do is activate people’s critical thinking skills, whether that’s in the art exhibitions — any time I have a chance to work with that department — or in our education department, or anything,” Romero said. “I want people to really look at something and say, ‘I didn’t think of that before.’”

Historian Alicia Romero named head curator of Albuquerque Museum