Meet the Curatorial Team 2026

Four Co-Curators based at museums in Africa and Europe jointly develop the contents of the programme. In 2026, the curators are based at the Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy (RCHA) and Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN). The programme is curated with feedback from the International Academic Committee and in ongoing dialogue with TheMuseumsLab Alumni Network. The Co-Curators also collaborate closely with cultural, heritage, and museum experts in their regions.

Jean de la Croix Mbarubukeye

Integrated Archives and Library Management Systems Specialist at RCHA
Jean de la Croix Mbarubukeye serves as the ICT specialist at the Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy, where he oversees the technology for the museums, archives and libraries. He is an alumnus of TheMuseumsLab's 2024 fellowship in Berlin and Hamburg, and he contributes to curatorial teams, advancing cultural preservation through digital innovation. He coordinated the development of a Collection Management System for managing collections.

Prior to this position, he was the ICT Officer at the Institute of National Museums of Rwanda (INMR) from October 2016 to June 2022. He worked as Deputy School Manager from January 2012 to September 2016. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering and Information Technology.

Thomas Cadeau Ngwabije

National Library Services at RCHA
Thomas Cadeau Ngwabije is a former Rwandan educator with extensive experience in secondary education and currently, a cultural heritage services professional. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts from the National University of Rwanda and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from the University of Kigali.

He has served as a teacher in various secondary schools across Rwanda for over a decade and currently works as staff at the Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy. He is passionate about history, culture, and heritage, and actively contributes to their promotion through educational programs and cultural initiatives.

Gita Herrmann

Curator at TheMuseumsLab, based at MfN
Gita is a curator at TheMuseumsLab, based at the Museum für Naturkunde. In her role, she shapes the programme's content and works at the intersection of theory, practice, and networking formats to ensure Fellows experience a meaninful programme and build relationships that last beyond the Fellowship.

Previously, she worked at different organisations such as ASEDEVA (Dar es Salaam,Tanzania), Modzi Arts (Lusaka, Zambia), the Goethe-Institut (Chennai, India), the Heinrich Böll Foundation and in the German Bundestag (Berlin). She is interested in questions of memory culture, the critical engagement with colonial collections, and the role of museums as spaces for social reflection.

Matthew Watts

Curator at TheMuseumsLab, based at MfN
Matthew Watts is an international art curator with more than ten years of experience working at leading cultural institutions. He currently holds the position of Curator at TheMuseumsLab. During his time at Tate, Matthew curated the Turner Prize 2022, and the Radical Landscapes 2023. Previously Matthew worked at the National Portrait Gallery (London), and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice). Matthew holds a first‑class Master of Arts in Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne and is completing a PhD in Art History at Goethe‑Universität Frankfurt, focusing on the intersections between the aesthetics of democracy and inclusive practice in art history.