Aja Roache
Director, Foster-Tanner Fine Arts Gallery
Adjunct Professor, Museum Studies
Foster-Tanner Fine Arts Center East, Room 108
(850) 412-5478
aja.roache@famu.edu
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Aja Roache has served as the Florida A&M University (FAMU) Foster-Tanner Fine Arts Gallery Director since 2012 while teaching courses that are part of the FAMU Fine Arts Museum Studies concentration. She specializes in art museum education and visitor experiences. She was selected as a 2016-2017 McKnight Junior Faculty Fellow and conducted research on HBCU art museums and the ways they shape Black students’ experiences. Roache has spoken internationally and nationally on topics about Historically Black College and University (HBCU) art museums and galleries, higher art education, wellness programming and art museums, and critical race theory. She has been invited to speak at the Association of Arts Administration Educators and the Association for African American Museums Associations conferences. She has also conducted research at The Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida and the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Roache served on the board of directors for 621 Gallery from 2009-2011 and the Word of South Festival of Literature and Music. She worked on collaborative projects with Lemoyne Center for the Visual Arts in Tallahassee, Florida, and served as a curatorial consultant on several projects with the Meek-Eaton Black Archives and Museum, FAMU Developmental Research School, and the Smithsonian "Crossroads: Change in Rural America" exhibition at the Havana History and Heritage Museum.
EDUCATION
Florida State University, Museum Education and Visitor-Centered Exhibitions, PhD, 2022
New York University, Interdisciplinary Studies, Humanities, and Social Thought, M.A., 2008
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Fine Arts, B.A., 2001
COURSES TAUGHT
Introduction to Nonprofit Art Organizations, Exhibition Planning and Design, Public Art Studies, Museums and Society, Art Internship, Colloquium in Art
SELECTED AWARDS
McKnight Junior Faculty Fellowship, Florida Education Fund, 2016-2017
Faculty Travel Grant, FAMU, Summer 2016