Weekly Shuffle: Beatrix Ruf Joins the Stedelijk, Russia’s Venice Commissioner Ousted, and More

Plus Obama picks his NEH chairman and Adam Szymczyk quits Kunsthalle Basel.

Beatrix Ruf, ©Robin de Puy

As previously reported by artnet News, Beatrix Ruf is leaving Kunsthalle Zürich, where she has been director since 2001, to head Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum.

Grigory Revzin, the Russian pavilion commissioner for this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, has been fired for criticizing Vladimir Putin, reports the Art Newspaper.

New York’s Museum of Modern Art has promoted three curators, as reported by Art in America. In the department of drawing and prints, Jodi Hauptman, a 12 year MoMA vet, is stepping up to a senior curator role, while Starr Figura is being promoted from associate curator to curator. Joshua Siegel, a curatorial assistant in the museum’s department of film since 1993, has been named curator.

President Obama has nominated William “Bro” Adams, chairman of Maine’s Colby College, as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the White House announced.

As artnet News reported last week, Adam Szymczyk will step down as director of the Kunsthalle Basel to focus on his work as artistic director of Documenta 14, slated to open in the summer of 2017.

Edward Dolman, who just announced his resignation from the Qatar Museums Authority, will return to the auction business. A 27-year Christie’s veteran, Dolman has accepted the position of chairman and chief executive at Phillips, according to the New York Times.

Kerry Brougher, interim director and chief curator of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC has been tapped by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to direct the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, slated to open in 2017, reports the Los Angeles Times.

New York’s UNTITLED Gallery is losing co-director Carol Cohen, who has run the gallery with Joe Mesler since its 2010 opening, reports Art Media Agency.

Former Culture Secretary Maria Miller Wikimedia Commons

Former Culture Secretary Maria Miller.
Wikimedia Commons.

Following a political expense scandal, Great Britain’s cultural secretary, Maria Miller, has been forced to resign, as artnet News reported on Wednesday.

Doug Dreishpoon, the chief curator at Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery, will step down to an emeritus role as of May 1, according to the Buffalo News.

Sonnet Takahisa is joining the Newark Museum as its deputy director of education, succeeding Ted Lind, who retired last year, reports Artdaily.

As reported by the Milwaukee Business Journal, the Milwaukee Art Museum has hired Brandon Ruud of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln‘s Sheldon Museum of Art as its new curator of American and decorative arts.

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is losing its film curator, Brian Hearn, who is stepping down after 19 years with the museum, reports NewsOK. The institution also welcomes Tracy Truels, the former family programs coordinator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, as curator of education, as reported by Artdaily.

San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum has hired Renny Pritikin to be its new chief curator, as reported by Artforum.

The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, has hired Joanne T. Chou as CEO, reports Artdaily.

The board at New York’s Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is expanding to 36 members with the appointment of three new trustees, reports GalleristJon Iwata of IBM, Avi Reichental of 3D-printing company 3D Systems, and Todd Waterbury of Target Corporation will join the museum as it prepares to reopen at the completion of an ongoing, $79-million renovation project.

AXA Art Americas will welcome three new members to its board of directors, reports Artfix Daily. The company’s chief technical officer, Christian Muller, will join the management board, while new CEO Kai Kuklinski becomes chairman of the board. In an independent appointment, Brazilian patron and collector Ana Carmen Longobardi also joins the board.


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