MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM NAMES MARCELLE POLEDNIK DIRECTOR
The Milwaukee Art Museum has announced that Marcelle Polednik will join the institution as its new director. Polednik—who is currently the director and chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville—will take up the position in August. She will succeed Dan Keegan, who is retiring this month.
“Following a year of transformative and groundbreaking projects, the Milwaukee Art Museum is embarking on a period of tremendous growth and opportunity. Our board sought a candidate who recognized that momentum, and could build on it and take the institution to the next level,” president of the museum’s board of trustees, Don Layden, said. The institution has just completed a $34 million renovation, reinstallation, and expansion project, and has recently acquired the nearby property for $28.8 million.
While at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, Polednik shifted the institution’s focus from traveling exhibitions to self-curated projects. Polednik organized several curatorial initiatives, including “SLOW: Marking Time in Photography and Film,” 2012; “Abstraction over Time: The Paintings of Michael Goldberg,” 2013; “WHITE,” 2015; and “Hans Hofmann: Works on Paper,” 2017. Under her leadership, MOCA’s attendance increased by more than 70 percent and its budgetary growth was 40 percent. She also established “Project Atrium”—a series of site-specific commissions by emerging and midcareer artists. In January 2016, she oversaw the launch of MOCA’s rebrand, which places a greater emphasis on the museum’s digital platforms. Previously, she had worked at the Monterey Museum of Art as the chief curator and the Whitney Museum of American Art as an assistant curator. Polednik earned her Ph.D. in art history from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts.
The announcement of her appointment follows Donna and Donald Baumgartner’s gift of $8 million to endow new directorship at the Milwaukee museum, as artforum.com previously reported.
