Daniel M. Leers has been been appointed curator of photography at the Carnegie Museum of Art (CMOA) in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Leers follows the retirement of Linda Benedict Jones, the museum’s first curator of photography.

Recently working as an independent curator in New York, Leers has worked as a curatorial advisor for the 2013 Venice Biennale and served as a curatorial fellow in the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art from 2008-2011. As part of this fellowship, he organized the exhibition “New Photography 2011.”

Leers has also held prestigious curatorial positions at the American Federation of Arts, the Museum of the City of New York, and has organized over 10 important exhibitions in the US. He received his master’s degree in art history and curatorial studies from Columbia University in 2007.

At the museum, Leers will shape the Department of Photography’s collection through important acquisitions and exhibitions. Lynn Zelevansky, a director at CMOA said, “[Dan’s] global perspective, high-caliber institutional experience, and collaborative energy, make him an ideal fit for Carnegie Museum of Art as we look forward to a dynamic future in which photography plays a major role.”

Mr. Leers is looking forward to steering CMOA into the direction of international contemporary photography, an area the museum already invests in. He recently organized the exhibition “Picasso & Jacqueline: The Evolution of Style” at the Pace Gallery in New York, as well as advised the curating of contemporary African art for the Venice Biennale.

“The museum has a long tradition of collecting and exhibiting international photography, through the Carnegie International and now the Hillman Photography Initiative,” Leers said in a statement. “I look forward to working with my colleagues at CMOA to continue that tradition and to share photography’s parallel histories from around the world.”

Leers officially joins CMOA on April 27.