Georgia Museum of Art | Info

Paul Manoguerra
Curator of American Art

Paul A. Manoguerra has served as curator of American art at the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, since 2002.

One recent project was Amazing Grace: Self-Taught Artists from the Mullis Collection featuring ninety folk art objects from a private collection in Atlanta. The catalogue for "Amazing Grace" won a bronze medal in the fine arts category of the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards. "Amazing Grace" also won the 2008 Award of Excellence for exhibitions from the Southeastern Museums Conference.  

Manoguerra received his Ph.D. in American Studies, with concentrations in American art history, museum studies and U.S. history, from Michigan State University in 2002. He holds an M.A. in museum studies from The George Washington University, and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame. He studied in Italy on the Saint Mary's College (Indiana) Rome Program from 1989 to 1990.

Manoguerra was curator and author for Classic Ground: Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Painting and the Italian Encounter , an exhibition and book that examined American paintings, created as the result of Italian travels, within the context of U.S. social and cultural history. Classic Ground won, in 2005, the Award of Excellence for exhibitions at the Southeastern Museums Conference, and the Mary Ellen LoPresti Art Publication Award of the Southeast Chapter of the Art Libraries Society of North America. The exhibition Jay Robinson also won, in its budget category, a 2007 Commendation at the Southeastern Museums Conference. His scholarship has appeared in several publications, including the American Art Review, the New Georgia Encyclopedia, and Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, and numerous exhibition catalogues and brochures.

He served as assistant to the director for the Museum Studies program at Michigan State University from 1999 to 2001.   Manoguerra was also graduate assistant at the Kresge Art Museum in 1999 to 2000. He was formerly the director of exhibitions/collections at the Paine Art Center & Gardens, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Manoguerra functioned as a curatorial intern to the deputy director/chief curator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., from 1993 to 1994.

Manoguerra has taught at several institutions, including the University of Georgia, Kalamazoo College, Lansing Community College, Michigan State University, and in the Direct Encounter with the Arts program at Western Michigan University.

His current major project is a catalogue of the extensive American collections at the Georgia Museum of Art.

Email him at manoguer@uga.edu.