Since 2013, Anja Chávez is director of university museums for Colgate University. She directs the Picker Art Gallery and Longyear Museum of Anthropology, as well as the university’s envisioned Center for Art and Culture. With an academic background as an art historian, Anja Chávez holds MA and PhD degrees from the University of Bonn, Germany, and attended the École Normale Supérieure and the Université de Paris Sorbonne (Paris IV).
Chávez brings two decades of museum experience in major international museums (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Lenbachhaus, Munich; MFA, Boston) and liberal arts colleges and universities. In academic museums, she has consistently involved students and faculty from multiple disciplines in the work of Western and nonWestern artists. A recipient of international residencies, she worked with major artists of our times (Xu Bing, Steve McQueen, Lawrence Weiner), produced high profile, innovative scholarly exhibitions, received several AICA awards, and created partnerships across institutions and communities, at regional, national, and international levels. Chávez recently served as an AAM peer reviewer. A member of professional organizations (AAM, AAMG, ArtTable, ICOM, NESCAMA), she is part of AAMG’s Board of Directors (Secretary), the NYS representative of AAMG and a Rotarian.