Cheryl Finley

Art historian and curator Cheryl Finley was born on February 15, 1964 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Gail Tabourne Finley and Harold Euguene Finley, Jr. Finley received her B.A. degree in Spanish from Wellesley College in 1986, her M.A. degree in African American studies and the history of art from Yale University in 1988, and her Ph.D. degree in African American studies and the history of art from Yale University in 2002.

Between 1988 and 1992, Finley worked as an art appraiser for Penelope Dixon & Associates. She founded the Art Research Consortium in 1993, where she worked as a writer, consultant, and appraiser. In 2002, Finley served as an adjunct curator and visiting assistant professor at Wellesley College. She then joined Cornell University in 2003 as a visiting assistant professor and then, in 2004, was promoted to assistant professor and visiting art critic at Cornell University. By 2009, Finley rose to become the director of visual studies at Cornell University and associate professor in 2012. In 2015, she was a faculty-in-residence at Cornell University’s North Campus Faculty Program. Beginning in 2019, Finley served as the inaugural director of the Atlanta University Center Art History Curatorial Studies Collective and as a distinguished visiting professor at Spelman College. Finley additionally was a Harvard University visiting assistant professor, a University of Johannesburg research associate, an Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. fellow, and a Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture scholar-in-residence.

Finley was active in different community organizations. She joined The Girl Friends, Inc. in 1988 and since 2021, she served on the board of the Island Grown Initiative. In 2023, she joined the board of directors of the Menil Foundation and in 2024, she joined the board of Creative Capital.

Finley received numerous awards for her professional accomplishments. These awards include the James A. Porter Book Prize from Howard University in 2023, the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Book Prize from the Bard Graduate Center in 2019, the Historians of British Art Book Prize from the Historians of British Art in 2019, and the Sylvia Ardyn Boone Prize from Yale University in 1998.

Finley resides in Atlanta, Georgia. She has one daughter, Noura Elise Finley.

Cheryl Finley was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 30, 2024.