AAMG Members in the News

October 20, 2011

Stephanie Wiles named director of the Johnson Museum

By Daniel Aloi

Stephanie Wiles of Oberlin College has been named the next director of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Provost Kent Fuchs has announced.

Wiles has been the John G.W. Cowles Director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin since July 2004. A specialist in Old Master drawings and prints and British and American art, she has organized numerous exhibitions, been responsible for acquisitions of works by artists ranging from Rembrandt van Rijn to Sol LeWitt and led many grant-funded projects. While overseeing a recent 20-month building renovation and art storage expansion at the Allen, she co-organized exhibitions of some of that museum's finest works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. She also co-authored the Allen's first highlights catalog.

"I deeply admire Cornell's excellent liberal arts tradition, outstanding professional programs, and commitment to developing innovative cross disciplinary partnerships," Wiles said. "The excitement of being in a great university setting is really compelling, and it's a setting in which the museum has played such a great role."

Wiles succeeds Franklin W. Robinson, who retired as the museum's Richard J. Schwartz Director in June after 19 years. She will begin work at the Johnson in mid-November and will be named the new Schwartz director pending approval by the Cornell Board of Trustees in October.

As director, Wiles will oversee museum operations and a staff of 22; a collection of more than 35,000 artworks including extensive holdings in Asian and contemporary art; and an educational and outreach mission with programming serving the Cornell campus, the local community and the region. The museum building, by architect I.M. Pei, opened in 1973, and a 16,500-square-foot expansion, in a new wing based on Pei's original design, will have a public grand opening Oct. 15.

"Stephanie Wiles brings to Cornell a wealth of talent and experience and a deep commitment to the arts and arts education -- a commitment shared by her predecessor," Fuchs said. "I feel confident that she will continue Frank's legacy of enthusiasm and excellence, as the museum enters a new era with the addition of a spectacular new wing opening this semester."

Kent Kleinman, dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, led the search for the director position. "The committee conducted an extensive, international search and reviewed an extraordinary pool of candidates," he said. "Stephanie stood out from beginning to end as ideally qualified for this leadership position. The arts on campus will be in excellent hands under her directorship."

Wiles previously served as curator of the Davison Art Center at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where she developed several traveling exhibitions and taught specialized courses on prints, drawings and photography. She began her museum career at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. Her 16-year curatorial tenure in the Morgan's Department of Drawings and Prints included organizing many major exhibitions that were shown nationally and abroad.

Wiles has a bachelor's degree in modern languages from Hobart and William Smith Colleges (1981), an M.A. in art history from Hunter College (1987) and a Ph.D. in art history from the City University of New York Graduate Center (2001). A member of the Association of Art Museum Directors, she also serves on the editorial advisory board of the journal Master Drawings.

New Block Museum Director Named

Lisa Graziose Corrin, a former director of the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA), has been named the next Ellen Philips Katz Director of the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, effective Feb. 1, 2012.

Currently a Clark Fellow at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and visiting scholar in museum studies at New York University, Corrin served from 2005 to June 2011 as Class of 1956 Director of the Williams College Museum of Art.

"Lisa will bring extensive curatorial experience, deep knowledge of contemporary art, visionary programming and intellectual leadership to the Block," said Northwestern President Morton Schapiro. "We are thrilled that, following our national search, she has agreed to head up the Block."

During her six years as WCMA director, Corrin raised the museum's campus profile and deepened the museum's commitment to its teaching mission. She taught graduate and undergraduate students in the Williams art department, and, through the use of the museum, she significantly strengthened faculty and student engagement in teaching and learning across various fields of study. She also raised participation in public programs and related activities, and she continued to develop partnerships with area museums -- the Clark Art Institute and MASS MoCA -- as well as with college and university art museums nationally.

Under Corrin's directorship, the Williams College Museum of Art presented more than 75 exhibitions, several of which have travelled nationally and internationally to such museums as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, and, most recently, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. WCMA programs received significant press coverage as well as awards for exhibition and publication excellence. The exhibitions were supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and the Terra Foundation, among others.

Last spring the WCMA opened Reflections on a Museum, an imaginative reinstallation of all of its permanent collection galleries. Using "the museum" as its subject, the project features 50 loans from the Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG). The loans were selected by faculty and museum staff as part of a collection-sharing initiative organized by the YUAG and funded through the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Prior to her work at the WCMA, Corrin served as the deputy director of art and the Jon and Mary Shirley Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), as chief curator at the Serpentine Gallery in London and as assistant director and chief curator of the nomadic Contemporary Museum in Baltimore. At SAM, she was the artistic lead for the new 8.5 acre Olympic Sculpture Park on the waterfront. The park features the acquisition of a monumental sculpture by Richard Serra; commissions by Louise Bourgeois, Mark Dion, Teresita Fernandez and Roy McMakin; and gifts of sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly, Tony Smith and Roxy Paine, among others. At the Serpentine she curated a wide-ranging exhibition program of artists working internationally, including Richard Artschwager, Gilbert and George, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Andreas Gursky, Hans Haacke, William Kentridge, Brice Marden, Chris Ofili, Bridget Riley, Do-Ho Suh, Gillian Wearing, Rachel Whiteread and Chen Zhen.

Corrin is author of numerous publications on contemporary art and museology. Her book Mining the Museum, an Installation by Fred Wilson, based on the artist's landmark project at the Maryland Historical Society, was awarded the Wittenborn Prize in 1994. She co-authored a monograph on Mark Dion for Phaidon Press in 1997, and she currently is curating a project with Dion on behalf of the Clark Art Institute at the Explorer's Club in New York, scheduled to open in spring 2012.

Corrin will succeed David Alan Robertson who will retire as the Block director Dec. 31.

June 3, 2011

David Alan Robertson, immediate past president of AAMG, has announced that he will be stepping down as The Ellen Philips Katz Director of the Block Museum of Art effective Dec. 31, 2011.

Robertson has served as the director of the Block Museum and lecturer in art history at Northwestern since August 2002. In 2005 he was named The Ellen Philips Katz Director of the Block Museum. He is also co-chair of the AAMG's national Task Force on University and College Museums and Board Member Emeritus of AAMG. He is also a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors and the American Association of Museums.

Robertson will continue to pursue interests in support of academic museums on a national level upon leaving the Block Museum, including plans to pilot a summer Leadership Seminar for academic museum and gallery leaders at the Kellogg School of Nonprofit Management at Northwestern.

During Robertson's tenure, the Block Museum experienced a period of energetic growth. He has strengthened engagement with the museum among faculty and students from diverse disciplines across the University and increased direct student involvement in the museum and its activities. Under his direction, the museum received accreditation from the American Association of Museums and greatly enhanced its collections. Robertson established the museum's first Board of Advisors and more than doubled the size of its endowment and operating budget. He also has reinvigorated the Block Cinema program through well-received film series and related student programs. Robertson's leadership has established the Block as a significant interdisciplinary study center on campus and a vital museum for the Chicago area.

A search for Robertson's successor will be launched shortly beginning with the formation of a search committee.

March 16, 2011

Victoria Cooke - New Director at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art

Tarpon Springs, FL (Wednesday, March 16, 2011) - In February, Victoria Cooke began work as the new director of the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art on the Tarpon Springs campus of St Petersburg College.

Cooke says, 'I was impressed by the positive energy and enthusiasm of the staff, the college and the museum's board members and I am thrilled to become part of the Leepa-Rattner community.' St. Petersburg College has campuses throughout Pinellas County and Cooke will be exploring ways to engage faculty and students campus wide through the Internet and social media. 'By utilizing tools such as the Web Site the museum can give access to the collections, exhibitions and programs at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art to a much wider audience,' Cooke explains. She will also be leading the museum's efforts to attain accreditation from the American Association of Museums (AAM) in the near future.

Cooke received an M.A. in art history from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, and pursued a doctoral degree at the University of Delaware before becoming a curator of painting at the New Orleans Museum of Art. In 2007 she was named Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs at the Louisiana State University Museum of Art. There she worked to increase student and faculty involvement, wrote the museum's collection plan and helped the museum achieve accreditation from the AAM for the first time in 2010. Cooke succeeds Lynn Whitelaw, the founding director, who will remain with the museum as its first full-time curator. Whitelaw, who joined the college in 1998, planned the construction and operations of the museum and led it from its opening in 2001.

The Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art is located just west of U.S. Highway 19 at 600 Klosterman Road, on the Tarpon Springs Campus of St. Petersburg College. Museum hours are 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Friday and 1-5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and free to children, students and military families with ID. On Sundays, admission is a suggested donation of $5 (but visitors may 'pay what you can and enjoy the museum') and free docent tours are offered at 2 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays and major holidays. Isabelle's Museum Store is open during regular business hours. Please call ahead for information or directions (727) 712-5762.

Visit www.spcollege.edu/museum for information on LRMA programs, events, exhibitions and the museum store.

October 2010

New director takes helm at Bates College Museum of Art; achievements at Bucknell University mesh well with Bates strengths

LEWISTON, Maine -- Nationally esteemed as a curator and arts administrator, Dan Mills is the new director of the Bates College Museum of Art.

Mills comes to Maine from Bucknell University, where for nine years he served as director of the Samek Art Gallery.

He joins a museum known both for innovative, high-profile exhibitions and as a model of the academic art museum -- a laboratory where students, faculty and the community interact with art that resonates across the disciplines of a liberal arts education.

"I've known of Bates for many years from afar," says Mills, and was drawn by the museum's exhibition track record as well as its facilities and collection.

Mills adds that he has come to the college at a singular moment in its history, as President Elaine Tuttle Hansen has asked the institution to renew its emphasis on the arts as one part of Choices for Bates, a collaborative, college-wide strategic initiative. Spawning initiatives that include the creation of a Bates Arts Collaborative of faculty and campus arts presenters, "this is a wonderful situation, one with many opportunities for the arts and the college," says Mills.

About Dan Mills

"Dan Mills achieved great things at the Samek Gallery," says Bates Dean of the Faculty Jill Reich. "His exhibitions were adventurous and provocative, truly ahead of the curve. His vision will strengthen the Bates museum's role in enriching the arts scene in southern Maine.

"His commitment to making the collections accessible to all disciplines and interests means that the museum will be a resource for teaching and scholarship for the campus and the community," Reich says. "We appreciate his belief that students, scholars and artists should be able to encounter the collection firsthand and up close."

Mills, who started at Bates Sept. 13, led the Samek through a remarkable transformation. During his tenure there, the museum attracted national recognition for the energy and variety of its exhibitions, often focusing on contemporary art. Samek shows traveled to major cities, other academic museums and China.

Recent Samek exhibitions of note include "Xiaoze Xie: Amplified Moments" (2010-12), "An Academic Resource: Highlights from the Permanent Collection" (2010) and "Regeneration: Contemporary Chinese Art from China and the U.S" (2003-06).

"My philosophy has always been to organize exhibitions that would be terrific anywhere, but to do them for the institution I work at," says Mills.

He also dramatically expanded campus access to the Samek's permanent collection. "The collection changed from being a 'best-kept secret on campus' to a high-use research field and resource for disciplines across campus," he notes.

The latter achievement speaks directly to Mills' views on the ideal role for an academic art museum. Whether by opening a collection to the campus or curating a dynamic exhibition, it's all about connection: connecting programming in visual arts to students and faculty in all manner of academic disciplines.

"I find the liberal arts college an especially exciting arena for this," says Mills, because of the prevailing emphasis on education through both breadth and depth in subject matter. "I've had civil engineering or geography classes looking at art, and Spanish literature classes engaged in an exhibition in ways that were amazing -- and which I learned from."

Strongly committed to museum involvement in the community beyond campus, Mills is intrigued by Bates' overall engagement with Lewiston-Auburn. "There's a real service and outreach component that's in Bates' DNA, and that I find very appealing," he says.

Mills is also an accomplished artist whose work, in a variety of media, explores themes and imagery including cartography, humor, imperialism, cartoon characters, landscape and portraiture. Since 2009, he has had solo exhibitions at Sherry Frumkin Gallery in Santa Monica, Calif., the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum in China and at several academic institutions. The Perceval Press, actor Viggo Mortensen's publishing company, produced a hardcover book based on his "US Future State Atlas" series of drawings in 2009.

Mills earned his bachelor's degree in fine arts at the Rochester Institute of Technology and his master's at Northern Illinois University. He previously directed the Gibson Gallery at the State University of New York, and served as curator for the art program at the First National Bank of Chicago.

He is married to Gail Skudera, an award-winning artist whose work, combining aspects of pictorial weaving with painting and photographic transfers, has been exhibited widely throughout the Midwest and eastern U.S. They have three adult children.

Mills succeeds Mark Bessire, who now heads the Portland (Maine) Museum of Art.

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Lisa Hanover announced that an October 28 will see the dedication of the Henry W. '48 and June Pfeiffer Wing of the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College (Pennsylvania), marking the Museum's 20th Anniversary and the grand opening of the Pfeiffer Wing.