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Franklin
named director of Cleveland Museum of Art, Kennedy at TMA
By THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press Writer
CLEVELAND, August 26, 2010 (AP): The deputy director of the
National Gallery of Canada has been hired to lead the
Cleveland Museum of Art as it heads into the final years of
a major expansion project.
The museum said Thursday that trustees voted unanimously to hire
David Franklin as director, replacing interim director
Deborah Gribbon, effective Sept. 20.
Franklin's hiring capped a one-year search for a permanent
replacement for Timothy Rub, who led the Cleveland museum for
three years but left to become director of the Philadelphia
Museum of Art.
The appointment of Franklin, who has lived and worked in his
native Canada and in London, Oxford and Rome, comes as the
Cleveland museum heads into the final three years of a $350
million renovation and expansion.
Franklin, 49, said he was looking forward to making the museum,
whose collection contains more than 30,000 artworks spanning
thousands of years, even more meaningful and relevant.
``The new Rafael Vinoly building will act as a magnet for
curious audiences, making this the moment to have a greater
impact on more people than ever through Cleveland's collection
and intelligent presentation of art,'' Franklin said in the
museum's announcement.
Franklin, in a phone interview marking his appointment, said
upcoming completion of the expansion project and ramping up the
museum's programs and exhibits made this an attractive time to
become director.
The goal ``is to wake the museum up again after this
hibernation,'' he said. ``So it just seemed the perfect moment
to be involved with the institution.''
Franklin, an Italian Renaissance and baroque art scholar, has
held fellowships and taught at Oxford and was a visiting scholar
at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities in
Los Angeles and Rome's Hertziana Library.
He joined the National Gallery of Canada as curator of prints
and drawings in 1998 and was promoted two years later to deputy
director.
National Gallery of Canada director Marc Mayer said Franklin was
ready ``to take the helm of an internationally renowned museum
and make optimal use of his ideas, energies and talents there.''
The other finalists in the search weren't disclosed.
Brian P. Kennedy becomes ninth director at Toledo Museum of Art
Brian P. Kennedy, current director of the Hood Museum of Art at
Dartmouth College, has been named the ninth director of the
Toledo Museum of Art, the Board of Directors announced June 30.
Kennedy comes to the Museum with more than 21 years of
experience in senior leadership positions at art museums in
Ireland, Australia and the United States. He will begin his new
post at TMA on Sept. 1. |
