John Ravenal of the VMFA is the new AAMC President
June 8, 2009
The Association of Art Museum Curators today announced the election of John Ravenal of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts as its fourth president.
“John Ravenal is both a distinguished curator and a respected member of the larger museum community; we are fortunate to have him as our next president,” says Sally Block, executive director of the AAMC. Ravenal is the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at VMFA, a position he has held since 1998.
“I’m honored to take on the leadership of the foremost professional organization for art museum curators in the United States,” says Ravenal. “I look forward to working with the AAMC board to continue promoting and supporting the role of curators. Our profession is now more important than ever as we maintain the artistic vision of the museums we serve and engage ever broadening audiences.”
Prior to joining the VMFA curatorial staff, Ravenal was associate curator of 20th century art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
In 2006, he organized VMFA’s “Artificial Light,” featuring new light based installations by young international artists. The exhibition traveled to the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art during Art Basel Miami Beach. Other recent exhibitions include the first survey of sculpture by Robert Lazzarini (2004), recognized by the International Association of Art Critics as one the year’s best shows; “Outer & Inner Space” (2002), which presented a history of video art and received an Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award; and “Vanitas: Meditations on Life and Death in Contemporary Art” (2000).
His book “Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts” was released in 2007, and he is now planning a complete redesign of the Postwar galleries, a new 21st-century art gallery, and a new sculpture garden, all scheduled to open in May 2010 as part of the largest expansion in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ history.
Ravenal succeeds George T.M. Shackelford of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Also elected to the AAMC executive committee are Carol Eliel, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Helen Evans, who is the Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator for Byzantine Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They will serve two year terms as co vice presidents of the AAMC.
CONTACT:
Sally Block
Executive Director, AAMC
(212) 879-5701
sally.block@artcurators.org