Press Releases & Statements

New York, NY—January 9, 2014—The mid-winter meeting of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) will be held in New Orleans, Sunday, January 12 through Tuesday, January 14. This will be the first meeting under the presidency of Timothy Rub, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

AAMD was invited to New Orleans by its member in that city, Susan Taylor, who serves as the Director of the New Orleans Museum of Art and is Vice President of AAMD.  During the meeting, the group will also visit the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans.   

The meeting will feature panel discussions, presentations by outside speakers, committee and task force meetings, and regular information-sharing sessions for members.

Presentions at the meeting will include:

• “Institutions and Intimacy: Building Trust in the Absence of Authority” presented by Steven Tepper, Associate Director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University;
• “Transformative Leadership” presented by Tulane University President Scott Cowen;
• “Change, Transformation, and Renewal in the Arts” presented by Ben Cameron, Program Director, Arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation;
• And a closing keynote address by Robert Edsel, Founder and President of the Monuments Foundation for the Preservation of Art and author of “The Monuments Men”.   

Other highlights from the New Orleans meeting program are:

• A panel discussion, “Failure to Launch? Lessons from Leadership,” moderated by Jill Medvedow, Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston with panelists Dennis Scholl, Vice President, Arts for the Knight Foundation and Karen Brooks Hopkins, President, Brooklyn Academy of Music;
• A panel discussion “(Re)Building Communities Through the Arts” moderated by Susan Taylor, Director of the New Orleans Museum of Art and featuring the artists Mel Chin, Terence Blanchard, and Swoon as panelists.

Additional informal sessions provide opportunities for members to discuss other current issues of relevance and share information on such topics as the challenges faced by the Detroit Institute of Arts, ongoing efforts by AAMD and other partners to protect the charitable tax deduction, and future trends in the field.  These programs are part of AAMD’s ongoing commitment to support its members in serving their communities and to bring different speakers with a range of perspectives to AAMD’s meetings. The complete meeting schedule is included below.

The Association of Art Museum Directors—representing 232 art museum directors in the US, Canada, and Mexico—promotes the vital role of art museums throughout North America and advances the profession by cultivating leadership and communicating standards of excellence in museum practice. Further information about AAMD’s professional practice guidelines and position papers is available at www.aamd.org.