Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art
1133 East Seventh Street
Bloomington, IN 47405-7509
1133 East Seventh Street
Bloomington, IN 47405-7509
Allison J. Martino joined the museum as the Laura and Raymond Wielgus Curator of the Art of Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous Art of the Americas in 2020. Martino is also Affiliate Faculty in Indiana University’s African Studies Program and serves as secretary on the Board of Directors for the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA).
Martino’s research interests include textiles and fashion, photography, and contemporary arts in Africa. At the Eskenazi Museum of Art, she is co-curator of the exhibition Portraiture and Archives in African Photography (2025) with Ibrahima Thiam and Beth Buggenhagen. Her publications include Form and Surface: African Ceramics from the William M. Itter Collection (2023) and articles about her research on textiles, especially adinkra cloth. Martino also guest co-edited with Raymond Silverman a special issue of the journal Ghana Studies (2022) focusing on visual arts in Ghana. Fellowships and grants from Fulbright-Hays, American Council of Learned Societies, and the University of Michigan have supported Martino’s research on adinkra cloth.
Martino was previously a Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Africana Studies at Bowdoin College, and Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Martino’s teaching background includes courses in African art and visual culture as well as global textiles and fashion that she taught at Indiana University, Bowdoin College, Arizona State University, and the University of Michigan. She earned her PhD in the history of art at the University of Michigan, MA in the history of art at Indiana University, and BA in studio art at Denison University.
