ROM Appoints Tandazani Dhlakama as Curator of Global Africa

TORONTO, March 4, 2025 – The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Tandazani Dhlakama as the Museum’s new Curator of Global Africa. 

Dhlakama is a Zimbabwean-born curator who has worked in Zimbabwe and South Africa over the past 15 years, with a focus on art and artists from Africa and the African diaspora. Dhlakama joins ROM from Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, South Africa.

“We are delighted to welcome Tandazani Dhlakama – a curator with vast experience, a singular vision, and a truly international outlook – as she joins ROM in this important role,” says Josh Basseches, ROM Director & CEO. “Here, she will deepen ROM’s engagement with African art and culture, so that the Museum is even more representative of – and welcoming to – the many communities with African connections in Toronto and beyond."

As the ROM Curator of Global Africa, Dhlakama will lead a collaborative approach to stewarding and reinterpreting Canada’s largest collection of African art and culture. This includes developing a new vision for temporary and permanent displays and supporting engagement with diverse African and diaspora communities in the Greater Toronto Area, as well as the broader community – building on ROM’s ongoing reimagining of the scope and mission of the Museum’s collections, the stories they tell, and the voices that are represented.

“I look forward to highlighting nuanced narratives connected to the vast African continent and its complex diaspora,” says Tandazani Dhlakama, Curator of Global Africa. “I am excited about the prospect of thinking with and working together with communities and colleagues here and abroad to amplify entangled histories, while emphasizing the issues of our time.”

Dhlakama brings a depth and breadth of curatorial experience to ROM, having held multiple positions over a seven-year career with Zeitz MOCAA – including Curator, Assistant Curator, and Education Manager – where she was deeply involved with several international curatorial projects featuring prominent African and diaspora artists from across the globe. 

Her previous roles include Curator of Education and Public Programming at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) and Co-Curator of the African Biennale of Photography in Mali. 

Curatorial highlights include: When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting (co-curator), launched at Zeitz MOCAA (2022) before travelling to Kunstmuseum Basel (2024); Bamako Encounters at the African Biennale of Photography (co-curator, 2022); Witness: Afro Perspectives from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection at El Espacio 23 in Miami (2020);  Nobukho Nqaba’s Izicwangciso Zezethu… (co-curator, 2019) and Five Bhobh: Painting at the End of an Era (2018) at Zeitz MOCAA; and several exhibitions at NGZ, including Engaging with “the Other” (2013), Women at the Top (2014), ZimbabweIN Design (2014 and 2017), and Dis(colour)ed Margins (2017).

Dhlakama holds an MA in Art Gallery and Museum Studies from the University of Leeds in the U.K., and a BA in Fine Art and Political Science from St. Lawrence University in the U.S.

Dhlakama was appointed through an international executive search process led by Museum Search & Reference.

Image credit: Tandazani Dhlakama | Photo: Lunghelo Mlati

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Opened in 1914, ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) showcases art, culture, and nature from around the world and across the ages. Today, ROM houses more than 18 million objects, from Egyptian mummies to contemporary sculpture, from meteorites to dinosaurs. ROM is the most visited museum in the country and one of the top ten museums in North America. It is also the country’s preeminent field research institute, with a diverse range of experts who help us understand the past, make sense of the present, and shape a shared future. Just as impressive is ROM’s facility—a striking combination of heritage architecture and contemporary, cutting-edge design, which marks the Museum as an iconic landmark and global cultural destination.   

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