MAXWELL L. ANDERSON
Curriculum Vitae
C U R R E N T P O S I T I O N
Indianapolis Museum of Art May 2006-
The Melvin & Bren Simon Director and CEO
- CEO of one of America's ten largest art museums, with 355 employees, 54,000 works of art, $33 million annual budget, 165 acres of grounds, a 667,000 sq. ft. facility, and an endowment of $342 million
- Added over $30 million to its endowment through gifts and pledges, along with hundreds of significant gifts of art to the permanent collection in the wake of IMA’s 125th Anniversary celebrations
- Built a significant international exhibition calendar
- Resumed a free general admission policy and more than doubled attendance to reach some 450,000 visitors annually
- Launched an institutional Dashboard and pioneered other efforts at transparency including new deaccessioning practices
- Advocated the relaxation of environmental control standards to save energy while assuring the conservation of collections
- Oversaw the creation of leading resource for video on the visual arts at ArtBabble
- Built a leading department of Design Arts
- Launched 100 Acres, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, featuring ongoing site-specific commissions opening in America’s largest contemporary sculpture park in spring 2010
- Secured the donation of Miller House & Garden, Eero Saarinen’s iconic 1957 residence in Columbus, Indiana, together with a $5 million endowment gift.
- Opened a 600-seat theater as the home of independent cinema in Central Indiana
- Opened a conservation science laboratory, with an initial $2.6 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, $1.75 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and a far-reaching partnership with Indiana University and with Central Indiana’s life science initiative named BioCrossroads.
- IMA awarded the National Medal from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, "the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries that make extraordinary civic, educational, economic, environmental, and social contributions."
- Launched the Mellon Curators-at-Large program, hiring scholars residing in Hong Kong, Mumbai, and elsewhere to curate parts of IMA’s collections
- Hosted U.S. Pavilion of the 54th Biennale di Venezia with works by the collective Allora & Calzadilla
P R E V I O U S P O S I T I O N S
AEA Consulting, New York and London, October 2004-May 2006
Principal
Advised governments, foundations, and cultural organizations in Europe, Asia, and North America on strategic and scenario planning, capital expansion projects, and artistic programming
- Led an international team including architect David Chipperfield and designer Dinah Casson to prepare a feasibility Study for a UNESCO Museum of World Heritage, part of a €500 million project, the largest restoration effort in Europe, in the 17th century Royal Palaces of the Savoy dynasty near Turin
- Operations and financial review for the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne
- Strategic review for the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
- Preparation of a digitization strategy in London for the Imperial War Museum’s 6 million photographs, 120 million feet of cine film, and 36,000 hours of historical sound recordings, and works in other media
- Prepared a study on the elements of internationally significant museums for the National Museum of Australia, Canberra.
Chief Executive Leadership Institute, Yale School of Management, New Haven, 2003-2004
Leadership Fellow
- Guest speaker in two courses on non-profit governance and management
- Co-authored an essay with Jeffrey Sonnenfeld in Generating and Sustaining Nonprofit Income (Yale School of Management - The Goldman Sachs Foundation Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures, forthcoming 2004)
- Participated in the CEO Leadership Summits in New York City and in New Haven.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, 1998-2003
Alice Pratt Brown Director
- CEO of one of New York City's top seven ticketed attractions, with 650,000 visitors annually, 200 staff, $23 mm annual budget, 42-person Board of Trustees
- Increased its permanent collection with acquisitions valued at over $220 mm
- Founded an endowed conservation department
- Doubled its membership from 1998 to 2003 and increased its attendance by 40%, added $2 mm in annual contributions
- Added New Media and Architecture as collecting and programming areas
- Initiated the Bucksbaum Award, America's largest prize for artists, with a $2 mm endowment
- Created M.A. program in curatorial studies with Columbia University, leading to the appointment of Whitney curators as adjunct faculty
- Spearheaded a multinational art purchase of a work by Bill Viola with the Tate and the Pompidou
- Led the museum community's effort to champion the rights of artists on Capitol Hill
- Through a vital exhibition calendar and increased displays of the permanent collection, he doubled its membership, increased attendance by 40%, and improved annual contributions by $2 million
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, 1995-1998
Director
- CEO of the 8th largest art museum in North America, with over 200 employees, Cdn$21 mm budget, 40-person Board of Trustees, 500,000 sq. ft., 50 galleries, and collections extending from the late Middle Ages to contemporary art
- Organized numerous international exhibitions from leading institutions including the Hermitage, the Courtauld Collection, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
- Installed two galleries with highlights of Lord Kenneth Thomson's peerless collection alongside the permanent collection, paving the way towards his subsequent $500 million gift
- Reduced capital debt by half, while making major improvements to the physical plant
- Increased membership from 17,000 to 26,500
- Led the advocacy efforts that resulted in Canada's first exhibition indemnity policy
- Acquired numerous significant artworks including Jusepe de Ribera's St. Jerome and Gianlorenzo Bernini's Bust of Gregory XV
Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta, GA, 1987-1995
Director
- CEO of one of the Southeast's leading art museums
- Oversaw fundraising for, design and completion of a 45,000 sq. ft. renovation and expansion with architect Michael Graves
- Organized and staged dozens of series of loan projects and major exhibitions from museums internationally, including the Louvre, the British Museum, the Pompidou, Rome's National Museum, and Mexico City's Anthropological Museum, and for the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta organized "Souls Grown Deep," a major survey of African-American self-taught art
- Added thousands of works to the permanent collection, including important collections of African art and Pre-Columbian art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1981-87
Curatorial Assistant, Department of Greek and Roman Art, 1981-82
Assistant Curator, Department of Greek and Roman Art, 1982-87
- Researched, published, and placed over 100 Roman antiquities on permanent display
- Oversaw the fundraising for and publication of the frescoes from Boscotrecase
- Co-Curator, "Treasures of the Holy Land: Ancient Art from the Israel Museum," 1986-87
- Installation Coordinator, national tour of "The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art", 1983-84
E D U C A T I O N
- Harvard University , Cambridge, MA
M.A. (1978), PhD (1981) in Fine Arts
- Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
A.B. with Highest Distinction in Art History (1977)
- Schooling at The Collegiate School, New York City (1962-66, 1967-69), écoles communales in Toulouse and Montmorency, France (1961-62), Hurstpierpoint College, Sussex, England (1966-67), graduated from The Dalton School, New York City (1973)
P U B L I C A T I O N S
Over 70 articles in publications of The Library of Congress, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Columbia University's National Arts Journalism Program, Yale School of Management, Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, The Washington Post, The New York Times, UNESCO's Museum International, Daedalus, The Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Museum News, Archaeology Magazine, Archäologischer Anzeiger, Bolletino dei Monumenti, Musei e Gallerie Pontificie, The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, introductions to dozens of books and exhibition catalogues, including American Visionaries, the Whitney Museum's permanent collection handbook, and The Wired Museum (Washington, DC, American Association of Museums, 1997), co-author with L. Nista, Roman Portraits in Context: Imperial and Private Likenesses from the Museo Nazionale Romano (Rome, 1988), with L. Nista and A. Giuliano, Radiance in Stone: Sculptures in Colored Marble from the Museo Nazionale Romano (Rome, 1989) and author, Pompeian Frescoes in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1987) (New York, 1987) Metrics of Success in Art Museums (2004), author of forthcoming book, The Quality Instinct: Seeing Art Through the Museum Director's Eye (American Association of Museums Press 2012)
(Complete list of publications)
P R O F E S S I O N A L A F F I L I A T I O N S
Chairman, Cultural Property Task Force, Association of Art Museum Directors (2011- )
Member, Government Affairs and Nominating Committees, Association of Art Museum Directors
Member, Digital Promise Leadership Council
Member, Board of Trustees, American Federation of Arts
Member, Advisory Board, Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation Center for Research Affiliate, Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, September 2004-
P R O F E S S I O N A L E X P E R I E N C E
• Accreditor, Accreditation Commission, American Association of Museums, 1994- (Morgan Library, New York, NY; Fleming Museum, University of Vermont; The Taft Museum, Cincinnati, OH; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, IN; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
• Participant, eG8, Paris, France, 2011
• Trustee, American Federation of Arts , 1993-2005, 2008-
• President, Association of Art Museum Directors, 2002-2003
• Trustee, Association of Art Museum Directors (1994-96; 1998-2003)
• Chair, Task Force on Collecting, Association of Art Museum Directors, 2002-2003
• Panelist, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Learning Opportunity Grants, 2003
• Member, Advisory Board, NYC 2012 (independent private organization seeking to bring the Olympic Games to New York in 2012), 2000-2003
• Chair, Government Affairs Committee, 2002; Professional Issues Committee, 2000-2002; Task Force on Artists' Rights, 1998-99, Art Issues Committee, 1996-1998; Information Technology Committee, 1994-1996; Association of Art Museum Directors
• Fellow, Executive Seminar, Aspen Institute, Aspen, Colorado, August 2001
• Judge, Cambridge Art Association, February, 2001
• Host, "Whitney Dialogues", with Hans Haacke (February 2001), Bill T. Jones (May 2001), Andres Serrano (December, 2000) for the Freedom Forum, televised nationally on PBS Affiliates
• Member, Working Group, Cultural Plan for New York City (in conjunction with Schuyler G. Chapin, Commissioner, City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs), 2000-2001
• Chair, Exhibitions Committee, American Federation of Arts, 2000-2001
• Judge, 2000 Business in the Arts Awards, Business Committee for the Arts, Inc. and Forbes Magazine
• Program Chair, "Use It and Maybe Lose It: Ownership Rights in European and North American Art Museums," Annual Meeting, Association of Art Museum Directors, Denver, CO, June 2000
• Curatorial Consultant to Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc., Seattle, WA, 2000-2001
• Member, Advisory Panel, Rhizome ArtBase (online archive of Internet art projects), 1999-
• Presenter, News and Documentary Emmy Awards, 1999
• Member, Advisory Board, Arts and Culture SIG (special interest group) of the New York New Media Association, 1999-
• Juror, Artists Selection Panel for the Berlin Prize Fellowships, American Academy in Berlin, New York, 1999, 2000
• Founding Chairman, Art Museum Image Consortium (www.AMICO.org), 1997
• Liaison for Information Technology, Association of Art Museum Directors, 1996-1998
• Consultant, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, 1994-95
• Advisor, Pew Charitable Trusts, 1994-1998
• Kress Scholar, Symposium on Licit International Traffic in Cultural Property, Vienna, 1994
• Host, Live Television Broadcast on WOBA-TV 30, Atlanta, "Speaking Out on the Arts in Atlanta," 1994
• Program Chairman, "Art Museums on the Information Superhighway", Association of Art Museum Directors, Seattle, WA, 1994 Annual Meeting
• Member, Advisory Council, Getty Art History Information Program (AHIP), 1994-1997
• Participant, Museum Management Institute, The J. Paul Getty Trust, July-August, 1993
• Member, Association of Art Museum Directors, 1991-2004, 2006-
• Panelist, National Endowment for the Arts: Museum Fellowships, Internships, and Training, April 1991; Challenge Grants, Museums, July 1992
• Fellow, British-American Conference, Buxted Park, Sussex, co-sponsored by The Royal Institute of International Affairs and the Nitze School, Johns Hopkins University, October 1991
• Host, Television pilot titled "Archaeology Today" for the Discovery Channel, Cine-Mundo productions, Inc., 1991
• Faculty member in Art History, Princeton University (1985) the University of Rome (1987) and Emory University (1987-95)
• Chairman, the Curatorial Forum, the professional organization of the Metropolitan Museum's curatorial staff, 1984-86
• Curatorial Advisor, Program for Art on Film, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983-84
• First representative in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Professional Exchange Program, sponsored by Italian Ministry of Culture, 1982
• The Classical Fellowship, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980-81; Completed Ph.D. dissertation, Dionysos in Late Classical and Hellenistic Relief Sculpture
• Frederick Sheldon Travelling Fellowship, Harvard University, 1979-80; spent a year studying Roman sculpture in more than 120 museums throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa
S P E C I A L S K I L L S
• Fluent in French, Italian, German, Spanish, ancient Greek and Latin; has recorded dozens of voice-overs for recorded museum tours in five languages
H O N O R S A N D A W A R D S
• Decorated with the rank of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic), 2010
• Medal Recipient from The Lotos Club, New York, 2003
• OTTY Award (Our Town Thanks You), New York, 2003
• Cultural Laureate, Historic Landmarks Preservation Center, New York, 1999
• Decorated as a Commendatore dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Rank of Knight Commander in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic) 1990