Committee appointed to conduct search for art museum director

By Ruth Stevens on March 5, 2008, 9:05 a.m.

President Shirley M. Tilghman has appointed a committee to conduct the search for a new director of the Princeton University Art Museum.

The group will be chaired by John Wilmerding, the Christopher Binyon Sarofim '86 Professor in American Art Emeritus, who currently chairs the board of trustees of the National Gallery of Art and serves on the Guggenheim Museum board's executive committee.

Other members from the University faculty and staff are: Thomas Leisten, professor of art and archaeology; Cary Liu, curator of Asian art at the museum; Maureen McCormick, chief registrar at the museum; Leonard Barkan, the Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature; Guy Nordenson, professor of architecture; and Karin Trainer, University librarian. In addition, the committee includes Yve-Alain Bois, professor of art history at the Institute for Advanced Study, and Mark Stevens, a 1973 alumnus, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and member of the museum's advisory council. Katherine Rohrer, vice provost for academic programs, will serve as secretary to the committee.

The committee will meet for the first time in early March. Phillips Oppenheim, a firm well known for conducting searches for leaders of arts and cultural institutions, has been invited to assist with the effort.

The candidate selected will succeed Susan Taylor, director of the museum since 2000. As announced last month, she will leave her position at the end of this academic year.

Related Stories

Taylor, director of Princeton University Art Museum, to leave .

Susan M. Taylor, director of the Princeton University Art Museum since 2000, will leave her position at the end of this academic year after having led the museum through a period of significant transformation and growth. Taylor came to Princeton after serving for 12 years as director of the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College.  

Steward named director of Princeton University Art Museum .

James Steward, a skilled arts administrator and a specialist in 18th- and 19th-century European art and culture, has been selected as director of the Princeton University Art Museum.

Wilmerding to leave a legacy of Pop art to Princeton .

Renowned curator, collector, art historian and professor of American art John Wilmerding revealed May 4 at a reception and dinner in honor of his retirement that he is the individual who has promised a major gift of Pop art to the Princeton University Art Museum. 

Search committee appointed for architecture dean .

President Shirley M. Tilghman has appointed a seven-member committee to search for a new dean of Princeton's School of Architecture. Stan Allen, the school's dean since 2002, will step down at the end of the academic year to return to full-time teaching and architectural design after taking a yearlong sabbatical.

Search committee appointed for new admission dean
 .

Yoshiaki Shimizu, distinguished scholar who ‘transformed the study of Japanese art’ and Princeton graduate alumnus, dies at 84 .

Yoshiaki Shimizu, the Marquand Professor of Art and Archaeology, Emeritus, and a renowned scholar of Japanese art history, curator and Princeton graduate alumnus, died on Jan. 20, 2021, of lung cancer at home in Portland, Oregon. He was 84.

Christopher L. Eisgruber named 20th president of Princeton University .

Christopher L. Eisgruber, Princeton's provost for the past nine years, has been named the University's 20th president, effective July 1. He succeeds Shirley M. Tilghman, who last fall announced her intention to step down at the end of this academic year after completing 12 years in office.