Blanton Museum of Art Announces Staff Reorganization

The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin announces a restructuring of its staff as part of a new strategic planning process.

Director Ned Rifkin, after ten months in his new position, is making several key leadership decisions to advance the museum in the wake of a long transition. With the November departure of Associate Director Ann Hume Wilson, who now serves as Executive Director of the well-known vocal ensemble Conspirare, Rifkin was faced with a void in the museum’s secondary level leadership. “When I arrived, The Blanton had vacancies in a few important areas: museum education, Latin American art, and then, most recently, administration. My decision to create two Deputy Director positions to be filled by current talented and qualified staff members was an obvious move,” said Rifkin.

Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, The Blanton’s well respected Curator of American and Contemporary Art, and, since 2006, also the Director of Curatorial Affairs, has become the Deputy Director for Art and Programs, and will oversee curatorial, education and collection management areas of the museum. Rifkin commented, “With Annette’s leadership we will be better able to align these three critical content-based aspects of The Blanton. I expect to see a more integrated approach to how we care for, display, and interpret the art in our collection for our visitors, as well as greater collaboration and strategic effectiveness in our programmatic areas.”

Simone Wicha, after four outstanding years of serving as The Blanton’s Director of Development, has become Deputy Director for External Affairs and Operations, supervising fundraising, membership, communications, admissions, the café and museum store, as well as other financial and operational aspects of The Blanton. Rifkin said, “Simone, an alumna of the university, has demonstrated unique talents for effective management and strong leadership. The Blanton needs more clarity and efficiencies at a time when every museum and cultural not-for-profit organization is seeking to maximize its resources, both financial and human.”

The two Deputy Directors commenced their new roles on March 1, after authorization from UT’s Human Resources Department and Budget Council approval. When this occurred, a number of other organizational changes took place.

With Wicha’s promotion, Sarah Young, former Assistant Director of Development, became Director of Development. Kimberly Theel, also a former Assistant Director of Development, has taken on the role of Director of Membership and Visitor Services.

Another aspect of the reorganization regards the oversight of the works on paper collection, the largest and arguably most important of the museum’s 17,500 holdings. Multiple curators, according to their specific expertise and research areas, will now oversee works on paper. Thus, Jonathan Bober, who for over twenty years served as both Curator of Prints and Drawings and also Curator of European Paintings, will now focus primarily on works of European art, including works on paper. Rifkin commented, “As the current Veronese altarpiece exhibition has made dramatically manifest, there is much more important work to be done by focusing on our holdings of European art. Jonathan was the chief architect of the acquisition of the Suida-Manning Collection in 1998 and will be working more with it in order to mine its treasures and elucidate the still-to-be revealed values inherent therein.”

Assistant Curator Ursula Davila-Villa, who served as Interim Curator of Latin American Art since 2008, was promoted to Associate Curator of Latin American. “I have the utmost confidence in Ursula’s talents and abilities to continue to drive our efforts in this area of art and culture,” Rifkin said.

Reorganizing current staff to align to its mission and institutional priorities, The Blanton has appointed Sue Ellen Jeffers, for over two decades the Registrar, to Manager of Collections, overseeing all art handling and preparation within the museum. Meredith Sutton, former Associate Registrar, has become the Registrar. A new position, Administrator for Art and Programs, has been created to coordinate the many aspects of bringing the curatorial, educational and collections components of The Blanton into greater efficiencies and meaningful integration.

The curatorial vacancy created by Carlozzi’s promotion means that The Blanton will be seeking a curator in the area of modern and contemporary art, while continuing its commitment to Old Master European works, as well as art from Latin America. A search for individuals with appropriate academic qualifications and museum experience will commence immediately following the University’s Human Resources authorization.

As The Blanton continues forward in its strategic process, Rifkin believes that additional differences will be noticeable in the years ahead. “Not so much from a personnel perspective, but there will be more changes based on our continuing and shifting understanding of our audiences, the changing dynamics of the philanthropic world, and the manner by which art museums disseminate the valued experiences and information that we share with our visitors and stakeholders,” Rifkin added.