We’re thrilled to announce that our speaker for December’s CreativeMornings Houston event will be the distinguished Dr. Caroline Goeser. Be sure to save the date for December 12th, when Dr. Caroline speaks on the global theme of “education.” Registration opens on Monday, December 8th here.

About Caroline Goeser, Ph.D.
W.T. and Louise J. Moran Chair of Learning and Interpretation
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

At the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH), Caroline Goeser directs and oversees the Department of Learning and Interpretation, as well as the Junior School of the Glassell School of Art. From school and university programs to interpretive resources in the galleries to a broad range of programs for the public that include guided tours, concerts and lectures, Goeser guides implementation of education initiatives that reach tens of thousands of people each year. Goeser joined the senior management team at the MFAH in April, 2014, at a very exciting time when both the Museum and the city are poised for great things. Museum education is also at a vibrant crossroads, with a constant flow of new opportunities to engage local, national and international communities with works of art in meaningful and transformative ways.

Goeser comes to the Museum from the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), where she was Director of Education and Interpretation. During her six-year tenure in Cleveland, Goeser guided the reinstallation and reinterpretation of the permanent collection, reorganized the education department and led the museum’s collaborative interpretation program. She secured a National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant to create a $2 million endowment for the interpretation program, and led the content production of Gallery One, an interactive gallery and learning space for intergenerational museum visitors. She also collaborated with colleagues at the CMA and Case Western University to re-envision a joint doctoral program in art history to focus on object-based teaching and research. 

Goeser earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history at Carleton College and a Master of Arts and Doctorate in art history from Rutgers University. Following the completion of her dissertation in 2000, Goeser taught art history at the School of Art at the University of Houston, where she assumed various leadership roles, was awarded tenure and spearheaded the creation of a new graduate program in art history and curatorial studies. Goeser has published and lectured widely in the fields of museum education and interpretation, as well as 20th-century American art history, in particular the work of African American artists. Her 2007 book, Picturing the New Negro: Harlem Renaissance Print Culture and Modern Black Identity, won the Vasari Award for best book in art history from the Dallas Museum of Art in 2008. Her leadership of interpretive content in CMA’s Gallery One garnered international recognition in September 2013, when she was invited to present the keynote lecture at the conference, “The Future Museum Public: Approaches to Media and Meaning Making,” at the University of Oslo, Norway.