Dr. Silvia Forni joined the Fowler Museum at UCLA as the Shirley and Ralph Shapiro Director in December 2022. At the Fowler, she leads a team of dedicated scholars and museum professionals committed to celebrating underrepresented artists and art histories and to curating exhibitions and programs with and for the global communities of greater Los Angeles.

She is the author of numerous essays and book chapters. Her recent publications include Making History: Visual Art & Blackness in Canada (2023), co-edited with Julie Crooks and Dominique Fontaine; Art, Honor, and Ridicule: Fante Asafo Flags from Southern Ghana (2017), co-authored with Doran H. Ross and awarded the R.L. Shep Ethnic Textile Book Award by the Textile Society of America in 2018; and Africa in the Market: 20th Century Art from the Amrad African Art Collection (2015), edited with Christopher B. Steiner and awarded the Arnold Rubin Outstanding Publication Award from the Arts Council of the African Studies Association in 2017.

Dr. Forni holds a B.A. (Laurea) in philosophy from the University of Turin, Italy; an M.A. in cultural anthropology from Indiana University; and a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Turin, Italy.