Jennifer Scott, the director of the Holburne Museum in Bath, has been appointed as the Sackler director of Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London. She replaces Ian Dejardin who is leaving after 12 years in the post to join the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Ontario as chief executive. Scott, the first woman to fill the post, takes up the position in April next year. In 2017, the gallery will celebrate 200 years since it first opened its doors to the public.
Scott joined the Holburne Museum in August 2014. Last year, she led a campaign at the museum to acquire a preparatory oil sketch of a 19-year-old youth by the Bristol-born artist Thomas Lawrence, helping to raise £450,000 for the work, which was made in 1791.
She was the curator of paintings at the Royal Collection Trust from 2000 to 2014, and collections information assistant in the curatorial department of the National Gallery in London from 2003 to 2004. Scott studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.
From 2004 to 2005, 98,000 visitors attended the Dulwich Picture Gallery; this rose to 220,000 in 2015/16. Dejardin says in a statement: “I will leave at a moment when the gallery is preparing to celebrate 200 years since the first visitor crossed the threshold.” A temporary events pavilion, launched in partnership with the London Festival of Architecture, is due to launch in June marking the 200th anniversary.
