Philippe Vergne
Photo: Cameron Wittig
French-born Philippe Vergne, deputy director and chief curator at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, will become director of the Dia Art Foundation, effective Sept. 15. He succeeds Jeffrey Weiss, who left the Dia in March, after only nine months, having become disenchanted with the administrative side of the job.
Vergne is best know to New York museumgoers for co-curating the 2006 Whitney Biennial and organizing the recent “Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love,” which also appeared at the Whitney after premiering at the Walker.
The Dia’s press release (not online at this writing) describes the foundation as a “complex organization” with a museum in Beacon, NY, long-term installations in New York City, the western U.S. and Long Island, and “a dynamic contemporary art program in New York City, for which it is searching for a home.”
It’s good to know that the Dia’s effort to reestablish itself in its native city continues. But it’s hard to understand why it’s taking so long. Might there be any extra room in that big new museum facility planned for the Meatpacking District?