Wanted: Museum Director to Marry Art, Commerce

Unique job description complicates search for Guggenheim, Met, others
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 15, 2008 2:45 PM CDT
Wanted: Museum Director to Marry Art, Commerce
An installation from a show at the Guggenheim New York by artist Cai-Quo Chiang.   (Getty Images)

American museums are facing a shift in leadership, Newsweek reports, with 20 of the most prominent fine-art institutions—including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Guggenheim Foundation and the Philadelphia Museum of Art—in search of directors. A "generational shift" has left institutions seeking specific qualifications: "Ideally a candidate has a PhD in art history but also an MBA," one expert says.

As might be expected, traditionalists downplay the importance of finding a CEO-style director. "Art is very much still at the core of the job description," says the director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. "A business degree is not necessary, just some good business sense." (More art museum stories.)

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