MAXWELL L. ANDERSON
Curriculum Vitae
Maxwell L. Anderson has been The Melvin & Bren Simon Director and CEO of the Indianapolis Museum of Art since May 2006. Along with a $390 million endowment, 152 acres of grounds, 325 staff members, and an encyclopedic collection of 54,000 works of art, the IMA has the 5th largest art museum facility (667,000 sq. ft.) in the United States. During his tenure, the IMA has added some $25 million to its endowment through gifts and pledges, resumed a free general admission policy, and acquired significant artworks including several Edo-period Japanese paintings, The Dream of St. Joseph by Francisco Rizi (Spanish, 1614-1685), Guillermo Kuitca's Everything (2004) and numerous works from other periods. In addition the IMA scheduled a series of international exhibitions through 2009, declared a 2007 moratorium on collecting antiquities lacking provenance after 1970, announced the commission of the first 10 artists for the Museum's 100-acre Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, saw to the online publication of 272 artworks lacking complete provenance during the Nazi era, and launched Viewfinders, a program bringing every third-grader in the Indianapolis Public Schools and the public schools of Washington Township to the IMA for an in-depth experience, as well as providing each student with a year-long family membership.
He also serves as a Research Affiliate for Princeton University's Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, a program of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and writes a column on art world trends for The Art Newspaper.
Anderson received an A.B. from Dartmouth in 1977 with highest distinction in Art History, and A.M. (1978) and Ph.D. (1981) degrees from Harvard, having spent 1979-1980 abroad as Harvard's Frederick Sheldon Travelling Fellow. After working at The Metropolitan Museum of Art as curatorial assistant from 1981-82, he became Assistant Curator for Greek and Roman Art there from 1982-87. In 1985 he taught in the Department of Art & Archaeology at Princeton University, and in 1987 at the Università di Roma.
In 1987 he became director of Emory University's Michael C. Carlos Museum, where he built an addition with architect Michael Graves, added significant African and Precolumbian art collections, and organized numerous exhibitions with international institutions, among them the British Museum, the Louvre, Mexico City's Museum of Anthropology, Rome's Museo Nazionale Romano, and the Centre Pompidou. He served as director of Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario from 1995-98, where he organized exhibitions from the Hermitage, London's Courtauld Institute of Art, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and elsewhere, made major improvements to the physical plant, increased membership from 17,000 to 26,500, and acquired numerous significant artworks including Jusepe de Ribera's St. Jerome and Gianlorenzo Bernini's Bust of Gregory XV.
Anderson was the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art from 1998-2003. During his tenure the Whitney increased its permanent collection with acquisitions valued at over $220 million, founded an endowed conservation department and a partnership with Harvard University's conservation program, added New Media and Architecture as collecting and programming areas, initiated the Bucksbaum Award, America's largest endowed prize for visual artists, created New York City's first M.A. program in curatorial studies with Columbia University, leading to the appointment of Whitney curators as adjunct faculty, spearheaded a joint purchase of a work by Bill Viola with the Tate and the Pompidou, and led the museum community's effort to pass the artists' rights bill 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.
After five years as director, Anderson stepped down from the Whitney in September 2003, becoming a Leadership Fellow at Yale University's Chief Executive Leadership Institute for the academic year 2003-2004. While at Yale he was a guest speaker on non-profit governance and management in two courses at the School of 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, 2004), and participated in the CEO Leadership Summits in New York City and in New Haven. During the summer of 2004 Anderson developed a paper titled Metrics of Success in Art Museums at the request of the Getty Leadership Institute in Los Angeles.
From 2004-2006 Anderson was a Principal with AEA Consulting of New York and London, specializing in planning for the cultural sector. As a consultant he advised numerous museums, NGOs, government agencies and foundations in the United States, Europe, and Australia on long-range planning and program development. Projects ranged from leading 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; to an operations and financial review for the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne; a strategic review for the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; in London the preparation of a digitization strategy 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; and in Canberra a study on the elements of internationally significant museums for the National Museum of Australia. While at AEA he served as program consultant for an alliance between Atlanta's High Museum of Art and the Musée du Louvre, and was co-chair of Artissima 2005, Turin's contemporary art fair.
He is the author of dozens of articles and monographs on art and museums. He has lectured repeatedly at the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, sharing insights into the creative mind, the intersection of global politics and cultural heritage, art and high technology, and challenges facing museums. His commitment to collaboration in the world of culture has led him to advocate on Capitol Hill both international conventions and treaties to permit the free circulation of artworks internationally and national bills in support of the arts. He was president of the Association of Art Museum Directors in 2002-2003, and today serves on its Nominating Committee and Government Affairs Committee.
C U R R E N T A F F I L I A T I O N S
Indianapolis Museum of Art, May 2006-
The Melvin & Bren Simon Director and CEO
• CEO of one of America's five largest art museums, with 325 employees, 54,000 works of art, 152 acres of grounds, a 667,000 sq. ft. facility, and an endowment of $390 million
Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, September 2004-
Research Affiliate
• Preparing a publication on the tensions between artistic independence and public service in art museums. Topics include: recent changes in law affecting the ownership of collections they care for; commercially-minded compromises in artistic independence, engendered by the growing demand for earned and contributed income that is testing the limits of their non-profit status; and 'mission creep' caused by differing metrics of success from vocal stakeholders ranging from government officials to trustees, visitors, staff and scholars
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
Getty Leadership Institute, Los Angeles, Summer 2004
• Developed a paper at the request of the GLI titled "Metrics of Success in Art Museums."
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), and 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
• Led the museum community's effort to pass the artists' rights bill on Capitol Hill
"Mr. Anderson's Whitney has quietly become a model for responsible, foresighted museum stewardship, with an eye to enhancing not only itself but the entire field..he forged a series of innovative collaborations with a variety of educational and cultural institutions: a new masters degree program in modern art and curatorial studies with Columbia; a modern art conservation partnership with Harvard; an architecture and urban studies program with Cooper Union; a joint purchase of a Bill Viola video installation with the Tate Modern in London and the Pompidou Center in Paris; (and) a new arrangement to commission and distribute artists' books in collaboration with Printed Matter of New York."
The Wall Street Journal , October 2002
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
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 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), Ph.D (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
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) (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
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
P R O F E S S I O N A L E X P E R I E N C E
• 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
• Accreditor, Accreditation Commission, American Association of Museums, 1994- (Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; Fleming Museum, University of Vermont; The Taft Museum, Cincinnati, OH)
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Medal Recipient from The Lotos Club, New York, 2003
• OTTY Award (Our Town Thanks You), New York, 2003
• Cultural Laureate, Historic Landmarks Preservation Center, 1999
• Decorated as a Commendatore dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, the Italian Presidential Order of Merit, 1990