CCL Announces Class of 2011

2011 Fellowship_Class Portrait
CCL Class of 2011. Clockwise from top left: Stephanie D'Alessandro, Michael Taylor, Griffith Mann, Andria Derstine, Jeannine O'Grody, Roxana Marcoci, Olivier Meslay, Toby Jurovics, Beth Venn, Dan Finamore Photo by Amy Elliott

Program Seeks to Prepare New Generation of Art Museum Leaders

Ten outstanding curators from art museums across the United States have been selected to participate in the 2011 fellowship program of the Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL), a non-profit organization that trains curators for leadership positions. Selected by a panel of leading museum directors, the Fellows for 2011 are:

  • Stephanie D'Alessandro, Gary C. and Frances Comer Curator of Modern Art, The Art Institute of Chicago
  • Andria Derstine, Curator of Collections and Curator of European & American Art, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH
  • Dan Finamore, Russell W. Knight Curator of Maritime Art and History, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
  • Toby Jurovics, Curator of Photography, Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Griffith Mann, Chief Curator, Cleveland Museum of Art
  • Roxana Marcoci, Curator, Department of Photography, Museum of Modern Art
  • Olivier Meslay, Senior Curator of European and American Art & Barbara Thomas Lemmon Curator of European Art, Dallas Museum of Art
  • Jeannine O'Grody, Chief Curator, Birmingham Museum of Art
  • Michael Taylor, Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art
  • Beth Venn, Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art and Senior Curator, American Art, Newark Museum

Following last week’s announcement of the promotion of Christophe Cherix, 2010 CCL Fellow and the Museum of Modern Art’s new Chief Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books, the CCL is proud to announce that over half of its alumni have been promoted to senior leadership positions since the inception of the program in 2007. Among the thirty-one fellows to date, two have been named directors, four have been promoted to deputy-director or associate director rank, four have advanced to chief curator, and seven others have attained more senior positions in their own institutions or other museums.

“Curators have a critical role to play in the future success of art museums,” remarks Agnes Gund, Co-founder of the CCL and President Emerita of MoMA, “The traditional role of curator as scholar is only one part of the equation. Today’s curators must juggle their evolving exhibition and collection responsibilities with engagements that cut across every department in the art museum – from development and operations to publications and human resources. The CCL acts as a training ground for talented curators and the entire museum field benefits.”

In addition to a world-renowned faculty at Columbia Business School, who has developed a curriculum focused on the management challenges faced by museum leaders today, the program also includes an impressive roster of collaborators. “Each year I am gratified by the number of exceptional leaders both within and outside of the art museum community who contribute to this program,” says Elizabeth Easton, Co-Founder and Director of the CCL. “Nearly every major museum director in North America and many abroad have lent their expertise to the CCL. Added to that, senior officials in government, academia, philanthropy, and the corporate sector are an important part of the program’s diverse network of instructors and advisors.” 

Past collaborators of note include: Reynold Levy, President, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; Patti Harris, First Deputy Mayor of New York City; Kate Levin, Commissioner, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs; R. T. Ryback, Mayor of Minneapolis; Harold Varmus, Director, National Cancer Institute; Michael Francis, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Target Corporation; Darren Walker, Vice-President of Education, Creativity and Free Expression, The Ford Foundation and seventy-five art museum directors and trustees from museums around the world. 

The 2011 program will begin on January 10, 2011 and will include two weeks of instruction in New York, a week-long museum residency in the spring, and a concluding week of training in June. Also, each Fellow is assigned a mentor for the six-month duration of the program. 

About the Program

Co-founded in 2007, the Center for Curatorial Leadership acknowledges the increasing need for curators to learn new skills that combine traditional curatorial connoisseurship and art historical scholarship with administrative, managerial, and fundraising expertise. The aim of the program is to develop a new kind of curator, one who is able to take responsibility for the art in his or her care, and who is also capable of handling the internal and external managerial responsibilities integral to the larger, more broad-based concerns of the museum and the profession.

Additional information can be found at www.curatorialleadership.org

Contact: 
Hannah Howe
Center for Curatorial Leadership
174 East 80th Street
New York, NY 10075
646.405.8065
hannah.howe@artcurators.org

Documents

Press Release - CCL Announces 2011 Fellows (download)