Jacqueline Stewart, an acclaimed film scholar and the host of Silent Sunday Nights on Turner Classic Movies, has been named the president and director of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, reports the Hollywood Reporter.
In her new role, Stewart will be responsible for overseeing the entire operations of the institution, which opened its doors last September.
Before her latest appointment, Stewart served as the museum’s chief artistic and programming officer, “leading strategy and planning for the Academy Museum’s curatorial, educational and public programming initiatives, including exhibitions, screenings, symposia, publications, workshops, youth programs, and the Academy Museum Podcast.”
“Our ambition in opening the Academy Museum was to give Los Angeles and the world an unprecedented institution for understanding and appreciating the history and culture of cinema, in all its artistic glory and all its power to influence and reflect society,” Stewart said in a statement. “I feel deeply honored to have been chosen for this new role and look forward to working with our board of trustees, our COO and general counsel Brendan Connell Jr., our wonderfully talented staff, and with Bill Kramer and the Academy, as we continue to advance our mission.”
In a statement, Bill Kramer, the outgoing president, expressed his excitement about Stewart as his successor.
“It has been a great privilege to work hand-in-hand with Jacqueline as we opened the Academy Museum,” Kramer said in a statement. “I am thrilled that we will continue to collaborate in our two new roles. I know the museum will thrive thanks to her rare combination of expertise, creativity, and proven leadership. Like movie fans everywhere, I am so thankful to have her guide the future of the Academy Museum.”
Born on the South Side of Chicago, Stewart earned her B.A. in English from Stanford University and graduated from the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in English. Her additional studies include moving image archiving at UCLA and the Cineteca di Bologna in Italy.
As an academic, she is the Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago and she previously taught at Northwestern University. Stewart was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018, was a 2019 senior fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), and was honored in 2021 as a MacArthur Foundation Fellow.
A noted author, Stewart wrote Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity, a study of African Americans and silent cinema in 2005, and she co-edited L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema and William Greaves: Filmmaking as Mission.
Stewart also serves as chair of the National Film Preservation Board.
