Letter from the Director

DEAR FRIENDS

Summer greetings! I hope this latest issue of PhxArt Magazine finds you and your loved ones in good health, enjoying a careful and safe return to post-quarantine life. We have many exciting things in store this summer and fall, and I am joined by the entire staff and our Board of Trustees in welcoming you back to your Phoenix Art Museum. With the departure of our former director, Tim Rodgers, PhD, on June 30, I am honored to have been appointed by the Board of Trustees to serve as the Interim Sybil Harrington Director and CEO while our national search for a new director is underway. On behalf of all of us at the Museum, we are very grateful for the time we had with Tim, who helped to lead us through the challenges of COVID-19 and beyond. Tim has accepted a new position with the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan, and we wish him all the best in his new role. All of our staff, with the support of our Board of Trustees, are committed to ensuring a smooth transition to our new director in the year to come. We have formed a search committee, led by Trustee David Lenhardt, that will build upon the good work of the last search. The Museum will work with Koya Leadership Partners, a search firm that specializes in recruiting highly qualified and skilled museum leaders. We look forward to continuing to update you in the months ahead on our progress. During his time with the Museum, Tim and our incredible curatorial staff developed a number of exciting exhibitions and new installations that will be on view this summer and fall, many of which present beloved works in the Museum’s collection in reimagined ways and in new contexts with artworks that span collecting areas. Soon, you will enjoy the fruits of those labors with a full reinstallation of the Museum’s Art of the Americas and Europe galleries, featuring both familiar and seldom seen works installed together from the Museum’s European, American and Western American, Latin American, and modern and contemporary art collections, as well as the Museum’s own fashion-design collection. Later in the fall, we will also celebrate the re-opening of the newly updated and refurbished Ullman Center for the Art of Philip C. Curtis in its original location on the Museum’s first floor, across from the Art of Asia galleries. One of our original founders, Curtis created works that are among the most familiar and popular in our collection, and guests will be able to enjoy them in their original home, in context with other works from the American art collection. There is so much in store for visitors of all ages and interests at Phoenix Art Museum. While we have much work to do as we continue our national search for a new director, there is much to celebrate together. I look forward to seeing you in the galleries. With gratitude,

MARK KOENIG

The Interim Sybil Harrington Director and CEO Phoenix Art Museum