Dia Art Foundation has two new, particularly prominent board members, the New York Times reports. Taking the foundation’s board of trustees from 16 to 18 are James Murdoch, chief executive of 21st Century Fox and son of famed media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and former television anchor Jane Skinner Goodell, who is married to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
According to chairwoman Nathalie de Gunzburg, “the breadth and diversity of their experiences and expertise will contribute enormously to our work.”
Although he hasn’t served previously on any museum or foundation boards, Murdoch’s father Rupert is a longtime art collector. His former stepmother Wendi Deng is also an art world fixture, and an early investor in the digital art startup Artsy.
Goodell, who worked as a daytime anchor for Fox News until 2010, is also an avid collector of contemporary art.
Dia was founded in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, Heiner Friedrich, and Helen Winkler to aid artists in realizing large-scale, visionary projects. Today, the foundation maintains sites around the US, including Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty in Utah, Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field in New Mexico, and two major outposts in Beacon, New York, and Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.
According to the Times, the foundation is focusing their resources in the new year on re-establishing a major presence in downtown NYC. Plans to build a new site on West 22nd Street were announced in 2009, but ground has yet to be broken.