Rhea Combs

Director of Curatorial Affairs

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian

Rhea L. Combs is Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. She oversees the Gallery’s curatorial and conservation departments, helps shape the exhibition program, and facilitates the museum’s many acquisitions and commissions. Combs is also co-curator and co-editor of “Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, an exhibition and accompanying catalogue organized by the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, CA. Combs’s writings and curatorial practice focus on redefining the American story by highlighting artists from diverse backgrounds, particularly in the areas of film, photography, and portraiture. Previously, she was Supervisory Curator of Film and Photography and Director of the Earl W. and Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Art at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (2013-2021).