Queens Museums Names Laura Raicovich President

The Queens Museum announced today that it has chosen Laura Raicovich to be its new president and executive director. She will begin her position on January 1, 2015.

Raicovich comes from Creative Time, where, since 2012, she has served as the director of global initiatives, a position in which she was charged with expanding the institution’s international reach and for which Raicovich was entrusted with envisioning the annual Creative Time Summit conference, as well as its global residency program. Prior to that, she was the deputy director of the Dia Art Foundation, where she spent a decade of her career in various roles. She has also served as senior publicist at the Guggenheim Museum and communications and development director at the Public Art Fund.

“Our shared philosophy on the future of the museum, belief in the power of the arts to exact positive change, and dedication to making the arts relevant to all audiences made her the right person to move the museum forward,” said board chair Peter Meyer in a statement.

Meyer, along with past board chairs Gretchen Werwaiss and Alan Suna, headed up a museum committee that underwent a national search after the departure of Tom Finkelpearl in spring of this year, when he took on the role of commissioner at New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs (see “Tom Finkelpearl Promises to Make New York Livable for Artists“).

“With a successful expansion complete, strong and adventurous leadership over the past decade, and a well-deserved reputation as a model for community engagement, education, and outreach, the Queens Museum is in an enviable position, and I am honored to be selected as the new President and Executive Director,” Raicovich said.

In a statement, Raicovich added: “Pairing engagement and innovation with exceptional artistic production will allow the Queens Museum to occupy a unique place in the pantheon of cultural offerings in New York City, to become an international model, and to serve all of Queens as a world-class art museum.”