Philip Tinari, Director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art.

Sources indicate that New York’s Asia Society Museum may soon announce a new director in Philip Tinari, director of Beijing’s Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. The Asia Society has been without a director since Melissa Chiu took up her post at the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, in September (see Is Asia Society Closing in on a New Director? In the Running Are Philip Tinari and Miwako Tezuka).

The Bronx Museum of Arts in New York has appointed José A. Ortiz as the museum’s new deputy director. Ortiz previously served as deputy director of Boston’s Harvard Art Museums. There, Narayan Khandekar has been promoted from senior conservation scientist to director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. Khandekar succeeds Henry Lie, who retired at the end of 2014.

Carnegie Hall greets a new head in billionaire art collector Ronald Perelman who succeeds Sanford I. Weill, chairman of 25 years. Perelman sits on the board of the Museum of Modern Art and has served as president of the Guggenheim board. He has been a Carnegie trustee since 1988 and assumed the post of vice chairman in 2012 (see Will Ronald Perelman Turn Carnegie Hall into Madison Square Garden?).

The Studio Museum in Harlem welcomes Hallie S. Hobson as director of institutional advancement. Hobson has previously worked at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.

Rosanne Somerson has been appointed president of the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. The accomplished designer, educator and administrator will serve as the school’s 17^th president.

EXPO CHICAGO 2015 welcomes two new curators for its fourth edition. Louis Grachos, director of the Contemporary Austin will head IN/SITU, while Alfredo Cramerotti, director of British contemporary art museum MOSTYN, will oversee EXPO VIDEO (see EXPO CHICAGO 2015 Announces Curators and Inaugurates Curatorial Forum).

According to the Twitter-sphere, famed restaurateur Andre Balazs is the new curator for Design Miami’s Design At Large 2015 program. Design At Large presents large-scale works of contemporary design that do not fit in traditional gallery booths.

The Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas gains three new curators: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston exhibitions and public programs coordinator Evan Garza will be the new assistant curator of modern and contemporary art; Jeongho Park, a curatorial fellow at the Frick Collection in New York, has been appointed curatorial research associate for the department of prints and drawings, and Beth Shook has been promoted from the education department to the position of curatorial research associate for Latin American Art.

Emily Ballew Neff.
Photo: Via the Association of Art Museum Curators.

The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art announced the appointment of its new executive director, Emily Ballew Neff, who left her curatorial position at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, this past year after 20 years with the institution.

Catherine Futter has been promoted to senior curator of European arts, a new department at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.

The Fresno Art Museum has appointed Michele Ellis Pracy as its new executive director. Ellis Pracy has directed the Ojai Valley Museum in Ventura County since 2010.

SITE Santa Fe has appointed five international guest curators to head “SITElines.2016: New Perspectives on Art of the Americas.” Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, Kathleen Ash-Milby, Pip Day, Pablo León de la Barra, and Kiki Mazzucchelli take the helm.

The Tate in London has appointed curator Natalia Sidlina as adjunct curator for Russian art and British art historian Julia Tatiana Bailey as assistant curator of collections in international art.

London art dealer Gérard Faggionato will shutter his eponymous gallery to join the sales team at the London outpost of New York gallery David Zwirner. Formerly the head of both the Impressionist and modern department and the department of postwar and contemporary art at Christie’s, Faggionato will join Zwirner in April (see As London Dealers Struggle Gerard Faggionato Shutters Gallery to Join David Zwirner).

Rago Auctions in Lambertville, New Jersey, has promoted auctioneer and expert appraiser Christopher Wise, who has worked for the house since 2006 to the director of the fine silver department.

Wolfgang Pelz has acquired the rights to the Vienna Fair brand.
Photo: via Haas Elektro

Wolfgang Pelz, founder of Art Salzburg, will take over Vienna Fair in Austria from Reed Exhibitions. The fair will take place at the Messe Wien convention center in Vienna from October 8–11 (see Art Salzburg Founder Wolfgang Pelz Takes Over Vienna Fair).

The founding director of the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, Germany, Peter Joch, will leave his post only a year into his contract. The newly-founded museum is scheduled to open by the end of 2016 (see Barberini Museum Potsdam Off to a Bumpy Start, Director Peter Joch Resigns).

Contemporary art curator Bisi Silva was named artistic director of the 10th Bamako Encounters, African Biennial of Photography, which runs from October 31 to December 31, 2015. Silva founded and directs the Centre for Contemporary Art in Lagos, Nigeria (see Curator Bisi Silva Will Curate 10th Bamako Encounters).

Jean-Christophe Claude, assistant director of Paris’ Centre Pompidou, will begin his new role as assistant director and administrator of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The Centre Pompidou is also taking steps to replace former head Alain Seban. Serge Lasvignes, a French government official, has been nominated for the job, but the succession must still be approved by a government council (see Obscure Civil Servant Serges Lasvignes Gets Centre Pompidou’s Top Job).

Collector Aldric Speer will consult French auction house Artcurial’s design department. The news was announced in conjunction with the decision to focus their upcoming sale on the Scandinavian region.

Juliana Engberg, the artistic director of Australian Center for Contemporary Art, will soon be moving into her role as program director for the Aarhus 2017, in which the Danish city will serve as host for the annaul European Capital of Culture event.

Artist and curator Călin Dan will direct the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest. Dan, the former editor-in-chief of Arta magazine, has also worked as artistic director of the Soros Centre for Contemporary Arts, in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Zoë Gray is the new senior curator at WIELS, the contemporary art center in Brussels. Formerly, Gray was a curator at Witte de With center for contemporary art Rotterdam for seven years.