Museum Appointed New Leadership Across Education and Curatorial Departments and Mounted New Initiatives to Support Community Engagement
Dallas, TX—January 31, 2019—The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) continued to strengthen and expand its exhibitions and educational programming, bilingual offerings, and curatorial team in 2018 with the appointment of new leadership across departments, the development of expanded education initiatives, and the acquisition of major works across its collections. In support of the DMA’s commitment to engaging the community through programs anchored by its collections, three new curators and a new director of education joined the Museum in 2018, and the Museum expanded its off-site and bilingual program offerings. The Museum also added significant works to its collection, including 13 year-end gifts of 512 works of art in contemporary art, sculpture, photography, and the decorative arts.
“With education as a core priority for the Museum and a renewed focus on offering engaging experiences with the DMA’s outstanding collection, the DMA has made exciting strides in 2018,” said the Museum’s Eugene McDermott Director Dr. Agustín Arteaga. “In addition to building our collection in thoughtful ways that enhance our ability to illustrate new narratives in art history, I am thrilled by the innovative steps we have taken across our educational and curatorial departments. We are well poised to continue building on our strategic plan and ambitious goals for community engagement and innovative programs in 2019 and beyond.”
A critical component of the DMA’s commitment to community engagement, the Museum’s education department, known as the Center for Creative Connections (C3), gained new leadership with the appointment of Claire Moore as The Allen and Kelli Questrom Center for Creative Connections Education Director. In her first year, Moore, in collaboration with Museum leadership, has taken steps to further integrate education strategies across the Museum and collaborate with every department, from curatorial to marketing. As the Museum seeks to develop programming that reflects the diversity of its surrounding community, the department has spearheaded the Museum’s mounting of bilingual programs that serve the Dallas–Fort Worth community, which is 42% Hispanic. As part of this initiative, the DMA added six bilingual staff to the education team in 2018 to support bilingual programs at the Museum and at offsite school and community programs. They include Mary Ann Bonet, Director of Community Engagement, and Azucena Verdin, Evaluator. In addition, C3 formed a new Community Programs team within the department to expand the Museum’s year-round programming for youth, families, and adults at partner sites ranging from libraries to senior centers, building on the DMA’s 40-year history of offsite art-making experiences offered through the signature Go van Gogh® (GvG) outreach program. Lastly, the Dallas Museum of Art League endowed the department’s Director of Adult Programs, a position held by Stacey E. Lizotte.
In conjunction with the Museum’s strategic plan, the DMA strengthened and expanded its curatorial leadership in 2018 with the appointments of Sarah Schleuning as The Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design and Michelle Rich as The Ellen and Harry S. Parker III Assistant Curator of the Arts of the Americas. The Museum additionally appointed Heather Ecker to the newly created cross-cultural and endowed position of The Marguerite S. Hoffman and Thomas W. Lentz Curator of Islamic and Medieval Art. Last year also saw the endowment of the DMA’s first Marcus-Rose Family Deputy Director position, held by Tamara Wootton Forsyth and made possible through a $3 million gift from Catherine Marcus and Will Rose.
In addition, major new works entered the DMA’s collection in 2018, enhancing the depth and range of opportunities for the Museum to illustrate narratives of art history. Ranging from contemporary works by artists Ed Clark and Arthur Jafa, to modern paintings by Ida Ten Eyck O’Keeffe and Pablo Picasso, to modern and contemporary design objects by Najla El Zein and Richard Meier, to a significant Old Master painting by Derick Baegert, the recent acquisitions reflect a diversity of genres, mediums, and perspectives from around the globe and across history. In addition to 13 year-end gifts, the DMA received 32 19th- and early 20th-century artworks in 2018 as the final bequest of Margaret McDermott, the Museum’s single largest benefactor with her late husband, Eugene McDermott. The gift to the McDermott Art Fund to benefit the DMA included masterworks by Ernst Barlach, Pierre Bonnard, Eugène-Louis Boudin, Georges Braque, Gustave Caillebotte, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Robert Delaunay, André Derain, Walt Kuhn, Jacques Lipchitz, Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, Georgia O’Keeffe, Fernand Léger, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Signac, and Alfred Sisley.
Anchored by the Museum’s collection, several major exhibitions were presented in 2018 that contributed new art historical scholarship and offered audiences new discoveries. They include Ida O’Keeffe: Escaping Georgia’s Shadow, the first-ever solo museum exhibition for the under-recognized artist; Günther Förg: A Fragile Beauty, the first comprehensive museum exhibition for the artist in more than two decades; Women + Design: New Works, a focused exhibition featuring new works by seven contemporary female designers; and The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana, inspired by works in the DMA’s collection and revealing the splendor of Asante gold regalia. In support of its exhibitions program, the DMA additionally received a $4 million gift from longtime patrons Beverly and Donald S. Freeman to establish the Freeman Exhibition Fund. The fund is designed to advance the presentation of special exhibitions across the DMA’s encyclopedic collection.
Highlights among the Dallas Museum of Art’s acquisitions in 2018 include:
DERICK BAEGERT (German, c. 1440–c. 1509)
The Descent from the Cross
c. 1480–1490
Oil on oak panel
65 1/8 × 41 1/4 × 2 in. (1 m 65.42 cm × 104.78 cm × 5.08 cm)
Dallas Museum of Art, Marguerite and Robert Hoffman Fund in memory of Dr. William B. Jordan, 2018.14
Purchase
ÉMILE BERNARD (1868-1941)
The Salon
1890
Oil on canvas
35 1/16 x 45 13/16 in. (89 x 116.3 cm)
Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., 2018.4.McD
NAJLA EL ZEIN (Lebanese, born 1983)
Seduction
2016
Sandstone
29 1/2 × 70 × 67 in. (75 × 177 × 170 cm)
Dallas Museum of Art, Discretionary Decorative Arts Fund, T44013.a–b
Purchase
IDA TEN EYCK O'KEEFFE (American, 1889–1961)
Star Gazing in Texas
1938
Oil on canvas
Framed dimensions: 27 3/4 × 33 3/4 × 1 in. (70.49 × 85.73 × 2.54 cm)
Dallas Museum of Art, General Acquisitions Fund and Janet Kendall Forsythe Fund in honor of Janet Kendall Forsythe on behalf of the Earl A. Forsythe family, 2017.36
Purchase
CLAUDE MONET (French, 1840–1926)
The Water Lily Pond (Clouds)
1903
Oil on canvas
Overall: 29 3/8 x 42 3/8 in. (74.61 x 107.63 cm)
Framed dimensions: 38 3/8 x 51 3/8 in. (97.47 x 130.49 cm)
Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., in honor of Nancy Hamon
EDVARD MUNCH (Norwegian, 1863–1944)
Thuringian Forest
1904
Oil on canvas
Overall: 30 x 39 1/2 in. (76.2 x 100.33 cm)
Framed dimensions: 40 1/2 x 50 in. (102.87 x 127 cm)
Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc.
CÔTE D’IVOIRE, YAURE PEOPLES
Je face mask
c. 1930–1952
Wood and pigment
12 3/4 × 7 5/8 × 2 3/4 in. (32.39 × 19.37 × 6.99 cm)
Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., 2018.7.McD
Purchase
ARTHUR JAFA (American, born 1960)
Love is the Message, The Message is Death
2016
Video, color and black-and-white, sound
Duration: 7 minutes, 30 seconds
Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Marguerite Steed Hoffman and Thomas W. Lentz, 2017.31
Gift
JACQUES BLANCHARD (French, 1600–1638)
Zeus and Semele
c. 1632
Oil on canvas
59 x 44 3/4 in.
Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas C. Campbell, 2017.42.FA
Gift
JAPAN, KANO SCHOOL
Pair of six-panel folding screens depicting The Tale of Genji
16th–17th century
Ink and color on paper
Each: 66 3/4 x 146 1/8 x 2 in. (1 m 69.5 cm x 3 m 71.16 cm 2 5.08 cm)
Dallas Museum of Art, gift of David T. Owsley via the Alvin and Lucy
Owsley Foundation, Bromberg Family Wendover Fund, and the Cecil and Ida Green Acquisition Fund, 2018.21.1–2
Purchase
ED CLARK, (American, born 1926)
Intarsia
1970
Acrylic on canvas
119 × 215 1/2 in. (3 m 2.26 cm × 5 m 47.37 cm)
Dallas Museum of Art, TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Fund, 2018.47
About the Dallas Museum of Art
Established in 1903, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is among the 10 largest art museums in the country and is distinguished by its commitment to research, innovation, and public engagement. At the heart of the Museum and its programs is its global collection, which encompasses more than 24,000 works and spans 5,000 years of history, representing a full range of world cultures. Located in the nation’s largest arts district, the Museum acts as a catalyst for community creativity, engaging people of all ages and backgrounds with a diverse spectrum of programming, from exhibitions and lectures to concerts, literary events, and dramatic and dance presentations. Since the Museum’s return to free general admission in 2013, the DMA has welcomed more than 4 million visitors. For more information, visit DMA.org.
The Dallas Museum of Art is supported, in part, by the generosity of DMA Members and donors, the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
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Media Contact:
Jill Bernstein
214-922-1802
JBernstein@DMA.org