Weekly Shuffle: Changes at MoMA, Art Basel, Tate Modern, and More

Plus ARTnews revamps and Fondation Beyeler gets a new executive director.

Maxa Zoller. Photo: Courtesy Art Basel.
sarah-douglas

Sarah Douglas.
Photo: Jeff Zorabedian/JDZ Photography LLC.

Major changes at ARTnews will see Sarah Douglas, longtime culture editor at the New York Observer, replace Robin Cembalest as editor-in-chief, a position the latter has held since 1998, while Izabela Depczyk, COO of the magazine’s new part-owner, Abbey House, will take over as publisher (see report from artnet News).

With the appointment of Elizabeth A. Sackler, the Brooklyn Museum has its first chairwoman in nearly 200 years of operations (see artnet News article). Sackler’s predecessor, John S. Tamagni, who held the post for three years, will remain on the board, which Sackler has served on since 2000. She also founded the museum’s  Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art in 2007.

New York’s Museum of Modern Art has promoted senior museum archivist Michelle Elligott, with the museum since 1995, to the newly created role of chief of archives. She will be responsible for acquiring, preserving, and making accessible the institution’s archival collections (see MoMA press release). As reported by Gallerist, the museum’s Queens sister institution, MoMA PS1, has hired Allison Rodman, former communications manager for New York’s Armory Show for the past two years, as its new director of communications, replacing Rebecca Taylor, now with art PR firm FITZ & CO.

The Corning Museum of Glass is promoting executive director Karol Wight to president and executive director, effective January 1, following the retirement of Marie McKee, who has served 16 years in the role (see Corning Museum press release).

After eight years as executive director of the Arts for LA advocacy group, Danielle Brazell has been nominated to head the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs by mayor Eric Garcetti, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Nicholas Penny, Director of The National Gallery. Photographed on his second day in post on the balcony of Annenberg Court. Photo: By NVestberg Via: Europe in the UK

Nicholas Penny, Director of The National Gallery. Photographed on his second day in post on the balcony of Annenberg Court.
Photo: NVestberg, via Europe in the UK.

Londons’ National Gallery has announced the impending retirement of its director of six years, Nicholas Penny, effective once a successor has been selected (see artnet News report).

Miranda Lash, curator of contemporary art at the New Orleans Museum of Art since 2008, will depart for the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, reports the Times Picayune.

The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia, Athens, has a new curator of American art in Sarah Kate Gillespie, formerly an assistant professor of art history at the City University of New York, reports Burnaway.

Peter Held, curator of ceramics at the Arizona State Art Museum, will retire after 11 years on the job (see ASU press release). His final exhibition at the museum, “These Are Some of My Favorite Things,” opens July 19.

The Art Institute of Chicago has elected Robert M. Levy of Harris Associates Investment Firm as chairman of the board of trustees, replacing chairman of eight years Thomas J. Pritzker, who will remain on the board, reports Artdaily.

Ulrike Erbslöh, business and deputy director of the Van Abbemuseum for eight years, has been named deputy director of the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen and Basel, Switzerland, Artdaily reports.

maxa-basel-film

Maxa Zoller.
Photo: Courtesy Art Basel.

Cairo-based film curator and art lecturer Maxa Zoller is the new curator of Art Basel‘s film sector, replacing Marc Glöde, who had curated the program for six years (see artnet News article).

Elvira Dyangani Ose, the curator of international art at London’s Tate Modern, will curate Sweden’s 2015 Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (see GIBCA press release).

The new director general of Le Mois de la Photo Ă  MontrĂ©al will be Katia Meir, formerly the director of Montreal’s SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art, taking over for Chuck Samuels, the organization’s leader since 2002, Artdaily reports.

Daniel Finley, most recently the interim director of Wisconsin’s Waukesha County Museum—and until two years ago the president of Los Angeles’s Autry National Center of the American West—will replace John Scola, who now holds a fundraising job in Arizona, as director of Muzeo in Anaheim, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has hired a new assistant curator of Native American art in the department of Africa and the Americas: Jill Ahlberg Yohe, who previously held the same post at the Saint Louis Art Museum (see MIA press release).

The chief investment officer of Saiers Capital LLC, Nelson Saiers, is stepping down to pursue a career as an artist, leaving founder Jason Adler to run the firm, according to Bloomberg.

Noah P. Dorsky (president and CIO of the investment management firm Dorsky & Company and director of the Dorsky Foundation for arts and culture) and William E. Mayer (a founder of private equity firm Park Avenue Equity Partner and an Atlantic Council board member) have joined the Rubin Museum of Art’s board of trustees (see Rubin Museum press release).


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