Juliana Rowen Barton

Juliana Rowen Barton, PhD is a curator and cultural organizer based in Providence, RI.

Through her research and projects, she explores the confluence of race, gender, and design and invests in community-engaged creative practices. Barton is the Director of the Center for the Arts at Northeastern University, where she facilitates interdisciplinary arts programming and oversees the University’s contemporary art space, Gallery 360.

She also co-organizes Designing Motherhood, an award-winning book (MIT Press, 2021), touring exhibition and open-source curriculum that considers design and the arc of human reproduction. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including from the Graham Foundation, CASVA, ACLS, Center for Curatorial Leadership, and Mellon Foundation.

Throughout her career, she has worked on exhibitions and programs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, ArkDes, Center for Craft, Museum of Art and Design, Center for Architecture, and Museum of Modern Art, among others, and been a Lecturer at the Weitzman School of Design.

Barton received her BA in American Studies with highest distinction from the University of Virginia and her MA and PhD in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania.