Comings and Goings

This month:

 

Metropolitan Museum annouces three new hires

The Metropolitan Museum has added three new faces to its curatorial and conservation departments. Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser is joining the museum on 1 September as curator in the American Wing. Kornhauser has worked for the past 26 years at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, where she was most recently both chief curator and curator of American paintings and sculpture. Jennifer Perry is joining the Metropolitan in September, as a conservator for Japanese paintings in its department of Asian Art. She has been associate conservator for Asian paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art since 2004 and before that worked as a painting conservator in Oka Bokkoda studio in Kyoto, Japan. Finally, in January 2011, Xavier F. Salomon (above) becomes the curator of southern baroque paintings. Since 2006 he has been at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, where he is currently chief curator.

ICA, London appoints Matt Williams curator of exhibitions

The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London has appointed Matt Williams as curator of exhibitions. Williams, who was previously employed at Limoncello, Hotel, and the Zabludowicz Collection, and has been curator of International Project Space, Birmingham since 2008. He is also co-editor of the annual publication Novel, which focuses on artists’ writing and poetry. The upcoming issue, published later this year, features contributions by artist such as Alex Hubbard, Charles Atlas, and David Malkjovic.

Whitechapel Gallery adds Daniel Herrmann and Kirsty Ogg to curatorial team

The Whitechapel Gallery has two new members in its curatorial department: Daniel Herrmann is now the curatorial programme manager and Kirsty Ogg is a curator. Herrmann was previously curator of the Paolozzi Collection and 20th-century works on paper at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. While there, he curated a number of exhibitions, including “Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945”, “Miroslaw Balka: Entering Paradise”, “Paul McCarthy and the Myth of the Artist”, and “Echoes of Antiquity: Eduardo Paolozzi and Traditional Sources”. Ogg was director of The Showroom, London and is currently a lecturer on the MA curating course at Goldsmiths. She has worked with artists such as Jim Lambie, Claire Barclay, Eva Rothschild, Subodh Gupta, Richard Hughes and Daria Martin to present their first solo shows in London.

Susan Sayre Batton is managing director of Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries

Susan Sayre Batton has been appointed managing director of Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries, effective 1 September. Dia:Beacon, located in New York’s Hudson Valley, is the permanent home for The Dia Foundation’s collection of art. Batton, who has worked with the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Honolulu Academy of Arts, was most recently project director for “Modern Views”, an exhibition and auction that benefits the preservation and restoration of the Brick House at the Philip Johnson Glass House. Batton is taking over the director position from Steven Evans, who left Dia in July to become the executive director and curator of the Linda Pace Foundation in San Antonio.

Lars Nittve made executive director of Museum Plus (M+) in Hong Kong

And out of Hong Kong comes the surprising news that Lars Nittve, former director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and Tate Modern in London, has been appointed executive director of Museum Plus (M+), a new exhibition centre planned for the future West Kowloon Cultural District. Nittve takes over in January 2011 and will report directly to the chief executive of the development project, Graham Sheffield.

Elizabeth Smith appointed executive director of curatorial affairs at Art Gallery of Ontario

Former Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago chief curator Elizabeth Smith has been appointed executive director of curatorial affairs at the Art Gallery of Ontario, starting in September. Prior to her ten years in Chicago, Smith held various curatorial positions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, for 16 years.

Janet Carding takes post as director and chief executive of the Royal Ontario Museum

Janet Carding is moving from Australia to Canada to take up the post of director and chief executive of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Currently assistant director of public programmes and operations at the Australian Museum in Sydney since 2004, Carding comes to Canada in September. She replaces William Thorsell, who has served since 2000 and oversaw the $300m renovation of the ROM’s building, including a dramatic but controversial glass addition by architect Daniel Libeskind, the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal building.

Surprise appointment names Vittorio Sgarbi as Venice museums superintendent

Celebrity art critic Vittorio Sgarbi adds yet another feather to his cap as culture czar in Venice with his surprise appointment as superintendent of the Venice museums group, which oversees five institutions, including the Gallerie dell’ Accademia. Fabrizio Magani, superintendent of artistic and historical heritage of Verona, Rovigo and Vicenza since 2008, was named interim head of the Venice museums in June, and was expected to take the position permanently. Sgarbi has already been named curator of the Italia Pavilion in the Giardini for next year’s Venice Biennale and supervisor of acquisitions at Rome’s new MaXXi museum of 21st-century art, raising an outcry from much of the Italian art world because of his noted antipathy to contemporary art.

David Gaimster takes over as director of Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery

David Gaimster has stepped down as general secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of London to take over as director of the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow, the oldest public museum in Scotland, founded on the collections bequeathed to the University of Glasgow in 1783 by William Hunter, the scientist and antiquarian. Gaimster takes over in September and his replacement at the society is expected to be appointed during its July council meeting.

Society of Antiquaries names Maurice Howard new president

While saying goodbye to Gaimster, the Society of Antiquaries welcomed a new president, Maurice Howard. He is a professor of art history at the University of Sussex, teaching the arts of early modern Europe but specialising in architecture. He succeeds Geoff Wainwright, who stepped down after three years in the post, and his appointment follows the long-established pattern of the society to alternate between archaeologists and art historians.

Paul Greenhalgh to lead the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts

Paul Greenhalgh returns to England in November to lead the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia. Currently director and president of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art and Design in Washington, DC, Greenhalgh previously worked at London’s Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum as head of research. At the Sainsbury Centre, he succeeds Nichola Johnson, who is retiring after 14 years as director.

Gordon Watson named new chief executive of Lakeland Arts Trust

Gordon Watson has been named as the new chief executive of the Lakeland Arts Trust, which owns Abbot Hall Art Gallery at Kendal and Blackwell Arts and Crafts House. He is currently project director of The Hepworth, Wakefield, a major new contemporary art venue set to open in Yorkshire in 2011. Watson takes over the Lakeland Trust at the end of August and replaces Edward King, who resigned in December after 16 years at the post following disagreements with the board about the Windermere Steamboat Museum.

Veronica Wadley finally secures London chair at Arts Council England

Flouting complaints of cronyism, London mayor Boris Johnson has succeeded in appointing his favourite Veronica Wadley as London chair at Arts Council England. Wadley, the former editor of the Evening Standard newspaper, which backed Johnson’s run for mayor, applied for the post two years ago but was denied by Labour’s culture secretary Ben Bradshaw because of transparency concerns. With a new Conservative government in place, Wadley was unanimously elected by a five-person selection committee and approved by Tory culture secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Kaywin Feldman elected president of AAMD

Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) director Kaywin Feldman was elected president of the Association of Art Museum Directors at its annual meeting last month, hosted at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. She succeeds Michael Conforti, director of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, and will hold the post for one year. Feldman joined MIA in 2008, just before the economic downturn hit museums, and was soon forced to make significant cuts to the budget, staff and exhibitions programme, while taking a 10% pay cut herself.

Thomas Collins takes over as director of the Miami Art Museum

The Miami Art Museum seems to finally be picking up steam towards the construction of its new Herzog & de Meuron home, and it is also welcoming a new director, Thomas Collins, who takes over in August. Collins, currently the director of the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, New York, replaces Terence Riley, who abruptly resigned in October to return to his architecture practice.

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