Curator: Sarah Kennel

Sarah Kennel is the High Museum of Art’s Donald and Marilyn Keough Family Curator of Photography. Kennel joined the High in July 2019 from the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Mass, where she oversaw an extensive collection of photographs dating from 1839 to the present and managed an active and globally oriented photography program.

While at PEM, she co-curated the critically acclaimed touring exhibition Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings, organized by PEM and the National Gallery of Art, which opened at the High in October 2019, as well as Order of Imagination: The Photographs of Olivia Parker; ‘A lasting memento: John Thomson along the River Min; and permanent collection installations. At PEM, she developed the first strategic plan for the photography department and spearheaded important gifts. Kennel previously served for nine years as a curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where she helped oversee the photography collection and manage an active exhibition, acquisition and research program. Highlights include exhibitions and accompanying catalogues for Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris (2013), Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, 1909-1929: When Art Danced with Music (2013), The Serial Portrait: Photography and Identity in the Past 100 Years (2012), and In the Darkroom: Photographic 3 Processes before the Digital Age (2009).

As an art historian, Kennel has written and contributed to many publications, including the catalogue for Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings (with co-curator Sarah Greenough of the National Gallery of Art), which was awarded best photographic book at the 2018 Festival International du Livre d’Art et du Film. She has taught at Princeton University; the University of California, Berkeley; and George Washington University, and her numerous fellowships and awards include the Samuel H. Kress Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowship and the Mary Davis Predoctoral Fellowship at the Center for the Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, both at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Kennel earned a doctorate and a Master of Arts in art history from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University.

Visit the High Museum:
Any time before February 23, on your own

Curator Talk: Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Time: 6:30pm
Registration is required for all participants

• Free to APG members

• $10 (non-members)

• Entry to the High Museum is not included; free to High Museum Members, $14.50 for general museum entry.