Tom Finkelpearl in front of the Queens Museum’s panorama of New York City.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has chosen Queens Museum president and director Tom Finkelpearl to fill the post of cultural affairs commissioner, reports the Wall Street Journal. In addition to his 12 years at the museum, Finkelpearl’s previous experience includes working at what is now MoMA PS1 (also in Queens); serving as executive director at Maine’s Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; and running the Percent for Art Program for New York City under mayors David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani. Kate Levin, who held the cultural affairs commissioner position under mayor Michael Bloomberg, was named the first fellow of the National Center for Arts Research at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in February.

Maccarone has promoted director of ten years Ellen Langan to partner, reports Gallerist. The New York gallery, owned by Michele Maccarone, last month announced plans to expand to Los Angeles.

The Qatar Museums Authority is losing Edward Dolman, its CEO of three years, reports the New York Times. Despite his resignation, Dolman will stay involved with the organization as a member of its international advisory board.

Christie’s veteran Joshua Holdeman is joining Sotheby’s as its senior vice president and vice chairman of the Americas, reports the Art Media Agency.

Cabinet editor-at-large Margaret Sundell is the new executive director of the Drawing Center‘s Drawing Papers in New York, reports Media Bistro. She replaces Jonathan T.D. Neil, who now directs the Sotheby’s Institute of Art in Los Angeles.

Jessie Washburne-Harris is now a director at Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, also according to Gallerist. Since shuttering New York gallery Harris Lieberman in 2013, Washburne-Harris has been a director at Metro Pictures, also in New York.

Carol Cohen, co-owner and co-director of the Lower East Side’s UNTITLED—along with Joel Meiser—will leave the gallery on April 20, Gallerist reports.

According to the Times of Trenton, Grounds For Sculpture (GFS), a not-for-profit arts center in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, will welcome its new executive director, Gary Garrido Schneider, on May 5. Schneider comes to GFS from the Montclair Art Museum, also in New Jersey, where he is deputy director. Aiding the transition will be GFS’s interim executive director Michael Chang. 

Ohio’s Cincinnati Art Museum is appointing interim management as director Aaron Betsky’s May 1 retirement approaches, reports Cincinnati.com. David Linnenberg, the museum’s chief administrative officer, will fill the role of interim director as the nationwide search for Betsky’s replacement continues.

According to Artdaily, Amee K. Spondike of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, is joining the RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island, in the newly created position of director of development and external affairs.

The members of Cologne’s two-year-old  the Academy of the Arts of the World has elected art historian, writer, and curator Ekaterina Degot as its new artistic director, reports e-flux. Elke Moltrecht also comes aboard the non-profit as its new CEO.

Alabama’s Birmingham Museum of Art has appointed Wassan Al-Khudhairi as its new curator of modern and contemporary art, Burnaway reports. The co-artistic director of the 2012 Gwangju Biennale, Al-Khuhhairi previously worked at the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar.