CCL Announces Class of 2010

Emerging Leaders in the U.S. Museum Community Selected as 2010 Fellows

Twelve outstanding curators from art institutions across the United States have been selected to participate in the 2010 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 American museum directors, the Class of 2010 will begin the program on January 4, 2010, with instruction from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University as well as top museum directors, administrators and trustees from around the country. All costs are fully funded by CCL. The fellows for 2010 are:

• Christophe Cherix, Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
• Deborah Cullen, Director of Curatorial Programs, El Museo del Barrio, New York
• Malcolm Daniel, Curator in Charge, Department of Photographs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Kristina van Dyke, Associate Curator for Collections and Research, The Menil Collection, Houston
• Kathleen Forde, Curator of Time-Based Visual Arts, Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Troy, New York
• Alison de Lima Greene, Curator, Contemporary Art & Special Projects, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
• Frederick Ilchman, Mrs. Russell W. Baker Curator of Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Chiyo Ishikawa, Deputy Director for Art & Curator of European Paintings and Sculpture, Seattle Art Museum
• Alisa LaGamma, Curator, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Lisa E. Rotondo-McCord, Assistant Director for Art & Curator of Asian Art, New Orleans Museum of Art
• Trevor Schoonmaker, Curator of Contemporary Art, Nasher Museum at Duke University
• Stephan Wolohojian, Landon and Lavinia Clay Curator and Department Head, Department of Paintings, Sculpure and Decorative Arts, Harvard Art Museum/Fogg

Co-founded by Agnes Gund, President Emerita of The Museum of Modern Art, and Elizabeth Easton, the former chair of the Department of European Painting at the Brooklyn Museum, 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. 

After a rigorous application process, the fellows were selected by four museum directors from around the country. The intention is to encourage curators to strengthen their skills and to nurture talented curators who may not realize their own potential for leadership. The program begins in January with a two-week intensive session in New York, where the fellows will receive instruction from Columbia Business School every morning in major areas of management. Each fellow will also benefit from a 360 degree evaluation prior to the beginning of the program. In the afternoons, the fellows engage directly with the most important museum directors, trustees, administrators, and leaders of other cultural institutions from around the country. The program also includes a week long residency in a museum different from the curator’s own institution and a mentorship with the director or trustee of a museum or cultural institution, with whom they consult over the course of six months. The fellowship concludes in June with a final week of instruction emphasizing core values.

The CCL welcomed its first class of fellows in 2008 and in just two years, the program has seen the professional advancement of many participants. Among the twenty fellows to date, two have been named directors, four have been promoted to deputy-director or associate director rank, two have been promoted to chief curator, and three others have attained more senior positions.

“I am pleased that the CCL has already had such a transformative impact on the museum profession,” said Agnes Gund. “Curators are now being considered for top museum jobs, and directors across the country are involved in the program. The CCL fellows represent the highest standards of scholarship and commitment. They serve as an inspiration to the profession for engagement with the broadest range of issues that museums now confront.”

“This program has emerged as a source for cultural leadership initiatives across the globe, and the success of its graduates has underlined its important contribution to the museum profession,” said Elizabeth Easton. “Curators from the first two classes have achieved leadership positions in new institutions and embraced increased responsibilities in their own museums. I look forward to working with our group of 2010 Fellows.”

Agnes Gund has made a commitment to see the program through its first five years; Eugene Thaw, through the Thaw Charitable Trust, and the Matisse Foundation have also pledged three-year contributions. 

Additional information can be found at www.curatorialleadership.org. 

Contact: 
Lauren Shadford, Senior Program Associate
Center for Curatorial Leadership
174 East 80th Street
New York, NY 10075
646.405-8067
Lauren.Shadford@artcurators.org