NELSON-ATKINS MUSEUM DIRECTOR TO RETIRE

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art announced yesterday that Marc Wilson, its director and CEO, will retire next year after almost thirty years at the helm, according to the Kansas City Star’s Alice Thorson. Wilson will remain at the Nelson until June 1, 2010, and trustees have launched an international search to find his successor.

In his early years as director, Wilson was a nuts-and-bolts guy, working to make the museum a credible player in the national arena, writes Thorson. At the time, the museum had no curatorial departments of ancient art, American art, or modern and contemporary art. It now has nine curatorial departments and fifteen curators. Wilson also nearly quadrupled the museum’s full- and part-time staff, from 90 to 340 employees. Perhaps most impressive was the museum’s June 2007 opening of the Bloch Building after fund-raising campaigns that exceeded $360 million. The building nearly doubled the museum’s space for exhibits and other operations.

“He’s quite a guy,” said Donald J. Hall, a member of the board during Wilson’s tenure at the museum. “He’s been an excellent director. He knows the museum world extremely well, knows the art world very well, and is very broad in his knowledge of art. He’s a good strategist. I know he’s always working on me.”