Center for Curatorial Leadership
Prestigious NY Institution's Mission and First Class of Fellows
The Center for Curatorial Leadership, a New York organization that develops directorship skills in museum curators, has announced its premiere class of 10 fellows.
New York's Center for Curatorial Leadership is a scholarly organization dedicated to the rigorous training of prominent American curators. Its programme is intended to enable them to realize their fullest potentials as future museum directors. The Center's formation was announced on June 29, 2007 by co-founders Agnes Gund, President Emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, and Elizabeth Easton, the Brooklyn Museum's former chair of the Department of European Painting. Ms. Gund is funding the program through December 2009. This initiative is actively supported by Philippe de Montebello, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other museum directors in the United States and abroad.
Purpose and Location
The Center's raison d'être is to take American curators, each recognized in his or her respective field, and empower them with the skills necessary to direct a museum. New York City, with its rich academic and business resources, is the ideal location for expanding curators' professional development, a need voiced by de Montebello at the Association of Art Museum Curators' inauguration six years ago.
Course of Study and Certification
Ten scholars, selected from a pool of distinguished curatorial applicants, will acquire managerial skills from high-level administrators in important American museums. Each student will be mentored for the entire six-month fellowship.
Studies will commence on January 7, 2008 with a two-week series of intensive mini-courses devoted to non-profit management, finance, fundraising, board development, long-range and short-term planning, cultural properties law and other pertinent subjects. The Spring curriculum will entail a one-week residency in a museum other than the one that employs the fellow. One final week of study will occur in June. Museum directors, curators and trustees will conduct executive leadership seminars throughout the fellowship's duration.
The Center is now engaged in an collaborative educational program with Columbia Business School. The MBA level coursework, designed and delivered by experts in business, finance and management, will enhance curators' abilities to compete for museum directorships.
Successful completion of the program will lead to a certificate. The CCL will act as the graduates' unofficial resource for future museum directorships.
Fellows for 2008
The roster of 2008 fellows at the Center for Curatorial Leadership was revealed on October 3, 2007.
- Elizabeth Armstrong, Deputy Director for Programs and Chief Curator, Orange County Museum of Art
- Colin B. Bailey, Peter Jay Sharp Curator, The Frick Collection, New York
- Silvia Karman Cubiñá, Director/Curator, The Moore Space, Miami, FL
- Eleanor Jones Harvey, Chief Curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
- Paola Morsiani, Senior Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
- Jordana Pomeroy, Senior Curator, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
- Richard Rand, Senior Curator, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
- Gary Tinterow, Curator in Charge, Department of Nineteenth-century, Modern and Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Zoé Nicole Whitley, Curator, Contemporary Programmes, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (U.S. citizen)
- Laurie Winters, Curator of Earlier European Art, Milwaukee Art Museum
