William Morrow is an independent curator, museum specialist, and advisor to collectors and cultural institutions. He is recognized for curating international contemporary art programs and for his expertise in shaping, stewarding, and interpreting major collections. His commitment to fostering visionary artistic practices, deconstructing histories, and inspiring diverse audiences is the cornerstone of his curatorial practice. He brings extensive experience leading multi-institutional partnerships and coordinating exhibitions, permanent collection re-installations, acquisitions, public art projects, publications, marketing, public and donor relations, and fundraising initiatives.
Morrow was the inaugural Director of Exhibitions for the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation from 2019 to 2023. In charge of identifying and executing strategic partnerships with museum curators and directors, he spearheaded and managed over 70 exhibitions and loan projects across 20 states, Europe, and Canada from the Foundation's collection of more than 22,000 post-war and contemporary objects. During his tenure at JSFF, in addition to organizing large-scale traveling exhibitions such as Strange Weather (University of California, Santa Cruz, 2022) and Positive Fragmentation (National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., 2022), he also co-curated and organized retrospective exhibitions of David Hockney (Honolulu Museum of Art, 2023), Jeffrey Gibson (Washington State University, 2023), Louise Bourgeois (Esker Foundation, Calgary, 2021), Marie Watt (University of San Diego, 2021), Kara Walker (Frist Art Museum, 2021), Hank Willis Thomas (Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, 2024), John Buck (Willamette University, 2020), and Leonardo Drew (Eskenazi Museum of Art, IU Bloomington, 2021).
Morrow also worked with JSFF's institutional partners to provide strategic guidance for the development of public programming and facilitated the Foundation's grant funding to support outreach and educational programs for historically underserved communities nationwide. Morrow managed the Schnitzer Foundation's publication program, which included monographic books on Judy Chicago (2023) and Marie Watt (2022). Guiding the JSFF marketing team, Morrow also spearheaded national public relations and marketing efforts.
In 2023, Morrow developed JSFF’s first public exhibition space in Portland, Oregon. A testament to his ability to cultivate strategic partnerships, for JSFF’s inaugural public project, he partnered with Portland’s citywide biennial Converge 45 to curate the biennial’s anchor exhibition, WE ARE THE REVOLUTION (Aug 2023–March 2024). The exhibition was covered or reviewed in over 80 national publications.
Utilizing a global network of relationships with artists, galleries, estates, and auction houses, Morrow also advised Jordan Schnitzer, President of JSFF, on strategic and historically important acquisitions that helped establish the Schnitzer collection as one of the most in-depth private teaching collections in the world of post-war and contemporary art. During his tenure the colleciton grew from 15,000 to over 22,000 objects. With a focused effort to expand the Foundation's collection of BIPOC and women artists, Morrow advised on significant acquisitions that included over 350+ works comprising the print archives of Judy Chicago, 150+ works by Hank Willis Thomas, 20+ works by Marie Watt, and the largest private collection of work by Jeffrey Gibson, to name a few. He advised on the strategic acquisitions of important works by David Hockney, Keith Haring, Frank Stella, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, Titus Kaphar, and Leonardo Drew.
In 2015, Morrow served as the Curator of Contemporary Art and Academic Programming at the Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University, where he developed a multi-year strategic exhibition plan that included Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia (2016) and Beyond the Canvas: Contemporary Art from Puerto Rico (2017). Morrow was awarded the largest grant in the history of the museum from the Andy Warhol Foundation for his visionary programming.
Prior to joining Tulane, Morrow served as the Polly and Mark Addison Curator of Contemporary Art at the Denver Art Museum (2012–2014), where he curated banner exhibitions such as Material World (2013) and Nick Cave: Sojourn (2013) and first museum exhibitions for artists such as Thailand-based artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook: Two Planets and Village and Elsewhere (2013). Morrow also established the first strategic collection plan for the contemporary department in over two decades.
Morrow served as the founding Director of the 21c Museum and Curator of the private collection of Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson from 2005-2012. Establishing the brand and art programming for 21c Museum from the ground up, Morrow created a dynamic, rigorous, and inclusive platform for multidisciplinary contemporary art programming that has been a catalyst for rethinking the role of museums in the 21st century and was adopted as a model for seven additional 21c locations across the country. During his tenure at 21c, he curated and directed hundreds of exhibitions and programs, creating a platform that celebrates the artist's voice through major exhibitions, commissions, acquisitions, community engagement, publications, and collaborations in film, dance, theatre, poetry, and music. Morrow's exhibitions at 21c included Cuba Now (2011), Creating Identity (2009), and Tangled Up in You (2008).
During his tenure at 21c he curated early or first museum presentations in the United States of hundreds of acclaimed international artists—including Patricia Piccinini (Australian), Dinh Q Lê (Vietnamese), Yinka Shonibare (British-Nigerian), Abbas Kiarostami (Iranian), Arcangelo Sassolino (Italian), Jota Castro (Peruvian-Belgian), Simen Johan (Norwegian), Zanele Muholi (South African), Cornelia Parker (British), Astrid Krogh (Danish), and Bae Bien-U (Korean)—alongside then-emerging American artists such as MacArthur Fellow Camille Utterback, Kehinde Wiley, Mickalene Thomas, and Mark Bradford, whose groundbreaking practices have since redefined the landscape of contemporary art.
William earned master's degrees in art history and museum studies from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and from the Sainsbury Centre's School of World Art and Museum Studies at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.