After more than five years at the College, Brian Kennedy, director of the Hood Museum of Art, will leave to become the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Toledo Museum of Art in September, Provost Carol Folt announced in an e-mail to the Dartmouth community Wednesday.
Kennedy said he believes his "community-oriented" approach to museum management helped his candidacy for the position. He said he plans to build on the relationships that exist between the Toledo Museum of Art and its surrounding community of Toledo, Ohio, and to forge new international connections.
"This is one of the greatest collections of America, work-for-work," Kennedy said. "I want to make that better known throughout America and internationally I want bring the world to Toledo and bring Toledo to the world."
Juliette Bianco '94, assistant director of the Hood, also praised Kennedy's work connecting the Hood to campus and to the Dartmouth community.
"[Kennedy] has been a fantastic leader for the Hood and I think the reach that he's made out to campus has been one of the great testaments to that," Bianco said.
Although Kennedy will begin his position at Toledo in September, he said he plans to return to Dartmouth to celebrate the Hood's 25th anniversary in October. On Oct. 8, Kennedy will give a lecture on American artist Frank Stella's art exhibition "Irregular Polygons" that will be showcased throughout the anniversary celebrations. The exhibit will feature paintings created in the 1960s and named after small New Hampshire towns, Kennedy said.
Throughout his time at Dartmouth, Kennedy has brought several new art collections and individual works to the College and has overseen the publication of nearly 20 books about art collections at the Hood, Folt said in the e-mail.
"No one who has listened to [Kennedy] lecture will ever forget his infectious enthusiasm, affection and deep appreciation for art and artists," she said in the e-mail. "He taught us the value of public art."
Kennedy said that the Inuit and indigenous art exhibitions featured at the Hood were some of the more notable public art displays that he brought to Dartmouth, in addition to those that featured aboriginal Australian art and Sean Scully's "Art of Stripe" exhibit. Wenda Gu's "Green House United Nations" project which featured 430 pounds of human hair in Baker-Berry library was both "challenging" and "exciting" because it incited students to actively engage with the artistic community, Kennedy said.
"It has been exciting to engage with such an extraordinary group of students at Dartmouth to chat with them about what is art and why it is art," Kennedy said. "Engaging with students and faculty has been my greatest joy."
After he transitions to Toledo, Kennedy will be able to continue his active interaction with a student population through the University of Toledo's Center for Visual Arts, which is adjacent to the Toledo Museum of Art, he said.
"Brian is well recognized internationally as an exciting young director," Betsy Brady, chair of the Toledo Museum of Art's Board of Directors, said in a museum press release. "He has a warm, friendly personality, a desire for both excellence and diversity, creative energy and a love of active community engagement that make him a great fit for Toledo."
Kennedy said he hopes his successor at the Hood will be an "internationally-focused" member of the artistic community and someone who appreciates working at a museum on an academic campus. Kennedy also said he hopes to see the Hood expand with additional classrooms in the future years.
An interim director of the Hood has not yet been appointed, Bianco said, but a search committee for the new director will eventually be formed. There is currently no established timeline for filling the position, Bianco said.
Kennedy has "set a tremendous standard" for his future predecessor, she said.
"I think [Kennedy] came in with a really great idea about how he was going to work with the museum," Bianco said. "He listened, he fostered all of these amazing acquisitions."
