Jennifer Russell
You can tell the quality of a museum director in large measure by the quality of the appointments that he or she makes. Tom Campbell has just made a first-rate, seasoned choice in his appointment of the second of his two associate directors.
This just in from the Metropolitan Museum:
Jennifer Russell will return to the [Metropolitan] Museum as associate director for exhibitions. She is currently senior deputy director of exhibitions, collections, and programs at the Museum of
Modern Art in New York. She had worked at the Metropolitan Museum as associate director for administration from 1993 to 1996, and will
rejoin the museum in her new role effective Apr. 26.
Before working at the Met and MoMA, Jennifer held several top posts, including deputy director and acting director, at the Whitney Museum, where she organized several major exhibitions. The press release announcing her appointment and detailing her previous accomplishments is here.
Russell joins the Met’s other new associate director (for collections and administration), Carrie Rebora Barratt, who, among her many distinctions, appears in the most-watched video on the CultureGrrl Channel. Michael Taylor‘s video discussing his Arshile Gorky show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is a very close second to Carrie’s star turn. (Clicks on videos directly from their CultureGrrl embeds don’t count towards their YouTube count.) Jennifer has always been an under-the-radar (and off-camera) but highly important member of MoMA’s managerial team.
While we’re counting, welcome back to the returning classified ad in my middle column. I hope some readers with a message to convey will also take action to decorate my display-ad space in the righthand column which, at this writing, looks noticeably bare.