Brian Patrick Kennedy (born 5 November 1961) is an Irish-born art museum director who has worked in Ireland and Australia, and now lives and works in the United States. He was the director of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem for 17 months, resigning December 31, 2020. He was the director of the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio from 2010 to 2019. He was the director of the Hood Museum of Art from 2005 to 2010, and the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra) from 1997 to 2004.
Brian Kennedy currently lives and works in the United States after leaving Australia in 2005 to direct the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. In October 2010 he became the ninth Director of the Toledo Museum of Art.[1] On 1 July 2019, he succeeded Dan Monroe as the executive director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum.[2]
Early life and career in Ireland
Kennedy was born in Dublin and attended Clonkeen College. He received B.A. (1982), M.A. (1985) and PhD (1989) degrees from University College-Dublin, where he studied both art history and history.
He was Assistant Director at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin from 1989 to 1997. He was Chair of the Irish Association of Art Historians from 1996 to 1997,[5] and of the Council of Australian Art Museum Directors from 2001 to 2003. In September 1997 he became Director of the National Gallery of Australia.
National Gallery of Australia (NGA)
Kennedy expanded the traveling exhibitions and loans program throughout Australia,[citation needed] arranged for several major shows of Australian art abroad,[citation needed] increased the number of exhibitions at the museum itself[citation needed] and oversaw the development of an extensive multi-media site. Although he oversaw several years of the museum's highest ever annual visitation,[citation needed] he discontinued the emphasis of his predecessor, Betty Churcher, on showing "blockbuster" exhibitions.
During his directorship, the NGA gained government support for improving the building and significant private donations and corporate sponsorship. However, the initial design for the building proved controversial generating a public dispute with the original architect on moral rights grounds. As a result, the project was not delivered during Dr Kennedy's tenure, with a significantly altered design completed some years later. Private funding supported two acquisitions of British art, including David Hockney's A Bigger Grand Canyon in 1999, and Lucian Freud's After Cézanne in 2001. Kennedy built on the established collections at the museum by acquiring the Holmgren-Spertus collection of Indonesian textiles; the Kenneth Tyler collection of editioned prints, screens, multiples and unique proofs; and the Australian Print Workshop Archive. He was also notable for campaigning for the construction of a new "front" entrance to the Gallery, facing King Edward Terrace, which was completed in 2010 (see reference to the building project above).
Kennedy's cancellation of the "Sensation exhibition" (scheduled at the NGA from 2 June 2000 to 13 August 2000) was controversial, and seen by some as censorship. He claimed that the decision was due to the exhibition being "too close to the market" implying that a national cultural institution cannot exhibit the private collection of a speculative art investor. However, there were other exhibitions at the NGA during his tenure, which could have raised similar concerns. The exhibition featured the privately owned Young British Artists works belonging to Charles Saatchi and attracted large attendances in London and Brooklyn. Its most controversial work was Chris Ofili's The Holy Virgin Mary, a painting which used elephant dung and was accused of being blasphemous. The then-mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani, campaigned against the exhibition, claiming it was "Catholic-bashing" and an "aggressive, vicious, disgusting attack on religion." In November 1999, Kennedy cancelled the exhibition and stated that the events in New York had "obscured discussion of the artistic merit of the works of art". He has said that it "was the toughest decision of my professional life, so far."[6]
Kennedy was also repeatedly questioned on his management of a range of issues during the Australian Government's Senate Estimates process - particularly on the NGA's occupational health and safety record and concerns about the NGA's twenty-year-old air-conditioning system. The air-conditioning was finally renovated in 2003.[7] Kennedy announced in 2002 that he would not seek extension of his contract beyond 2004, accepting a seven-year term as had his two predecessors.[8]
He became a joint Irish-Australian citizen in 2003.[9]
Toledo Museum of Art
The Toledo Museum of Art is known for its exceptional collections of European and American paintings and sculpture, glass, antiquities, artist books, Japanese prints and netsuke. The museum offers free admission and is recognized for its historical leadership in the field of art education. During his tenure, Kennedy has focused the museum's art education efforts on visual literacy, which he defines as "learning to read, understand and write visual language." Initiatives have included baby[10] and toddler tours, specialized training for all staff, docents, volunteers and the launch of a website, www.vislit.org. In November 2014, the museum hosted the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) conference, the first Museum to do so.[11] Kennedy has been a frequent speaker on the topic, including 2010[12] and 2013[13] TEDx talks on visual and sensory literacy.
Kennedy has expressed an interest in expanding the museum's collection of contemporary art and art by indigenous peoples.[14] Works by Frank Stella, Sean Scully, Jaume Plensa,[15] Ravinder Reddy[16] and Mary Sibande[17] have been acquired. In addition, the museum has made major acquisitions of Old Master paintings by Frans Hals[18] and Luca Giordano.[19]
During his tenure the Toledo Museum of Art has announced the return of several objects from its collection due to claims the objects were stolen and/or illegally exported prior being sold to the museum. In 2011 a Meissen sweetmeat stand was returned to Germany followed by an Etruscan Kalpis or water jug to Italy (2013), an Indian sculpture of Ganesha (2014)[20] and an astrological compendium to Germany in 2015.[21][22]
Hood Museum of Art
Kennedy became Director of the Hood Museum of Art in July 2005.[23] During his tenure, he implemented a series of large and small-scale exhibitions and oversaw the production of more than 20 publications to bring greater public attention to the museum's remarkable collections of the arts of America, Europe, Africa, Papua New Guinea and the Polar regions. At 70,000 objects, the Hood has one of the largest collections on any American college of university campus. The exhibition, Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body, toured several US venues. Kennedy increased campus curricular use of works of art, with thousands of objects pulled from storage for classes annually. Numerous acquisitions were made with the museum's generous endowments, and he curated several exhibitions: including Wenda Gu: Forest of Stone Steles: Retranslation and Rewriting Tang Dynasty Poetry, Sean Scully: The Art of the Stripe, and Frank Stella: Irregular Polygons.[24]
Publications
Kennedy has written or edited a number of books on art, including:
Kennedy was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal in 2001 for service to Australian Society and its art.[25] He is a trustee and treasurer of the Association of Art Museum Directors, a peer reviewer for the American Association of Museums and a member of the International Association of Art Critics. In 2013 he was appointed inaugural eminent professor at the University of Toledo and received an honorary doctorate from Lourdes University.[26] Most recently, Kennedy received the 2014 Northwest Region, Ohio Art Education Association award for distinguished educator for art education.
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory, it was established in 1967 by the Australian Government as a national public art museum. As of 2022 it is under the directorship of Nick Mitzevich.
Alexander Robert "Sandy" Nairne is a British art historian and curator. From 2002 until February 2015 he was the director of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
The Hugh Lane Gallery, officially Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane and originally the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, is an art museum operated by Dublin City Council and its subsidiary, the Hugh Lane Gallery Trust. It is in Charlemont House on Parnell Square, Dublin, Ireland. Admission is free.
Sir Michael Craig-Martin is an Irish-born contemporary conceptual artist and painter. He is known for fostering and adopting the Young British Artists, many of whom he taught, and for his conceptual artwork, An Oak Tree. He is an Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths. His memoir and advice for the aspiring artist, On Being An Artist, was published by London-based publisher Art / Books in April 2015.
Fred Wilson is an American artist and describes himself as of "African, Native American, European and Amerindian" descent. He received a BFA from Purchase College, State University of New York. Wilson challenges colonial assumptions on history, culture, and race – encouraging viewers to consider the social and historical narratives that represent the western canon. Wilson received a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 1999 and the Larry Aldrich Foundation Award in 2003. Wilson represented the United States at the Biennial Cairo in 1992 and the Venice Biennale in 2003. In May 2008, it was announced that Wilson would become a Whitney Museum trustee replacing Chuck Close.
The Hood Museum of Art is an art museum owned and operated by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth was in 1772, making the collection among the oldest and largest, at about 65,000 objects, of any college or university museum in the United States. The Hood Museum of Art officially opened in the fall of 1985. The original building was designed by Charles Willard Moore and Chad Floyd.
Varujan Yegan Boghosian was an American artist, best known for his sculptures and assemblages. During his career, he held teaching positions at the University of Florida, Cooper Union, Pratt Institute, Yale University, Brown University and Dartmouth College. At Dartmouth, Boghosian was a member of the art faculty from 1968 to 1995. He was awarded an endowed position as the George Frederick Jewett Professor of Art in 1982. Boghosian retired from Dartmouth in 1995 and had since continued his work as a practicing artist up until his death.
Jonathan Anderson & Edwin Low, known as Anderson & Low are fine art photographers who have been collaborating since 1990.
The Contemporary Irish Art Society (CIAS) is an Irish society founded in 1962 to support the visual arts in Ireland. It purchases art works directly to donate to public galleries, as well as advising other bodies on works by living Irish artists. It also collects photographs.
Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi is a Nigerian artist, art historian, and curator, currently curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He was raised in Enugu and studied under sculptor El Anatsui at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, before traveling as an artist and curator. In the United States, he completed his doctorate at Emory University in 2013 and became the curator of African art at Dartmouth College's Hood Museum of Art. In 2017, he moved to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Nzewi has curated the Nigerian Afrika Heritage Biennial three times, the Dak'Art biennial in 2014, and independent exhibitions at Atlanta's High Museum of Art and New York's Richard Taittinger Gallery. Nzewi also exhibited internationally as an artist and artist-in-resident.
The Rancher is a 2002 painting by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. It is in the collection of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. The painting serves as Quick-to-See Smith's tribute to Montana, where she grew up.
Robert Stewart Bell was an Australian artist and arts curator, best known for his focus on decorative arts. He also worked as an artist in ceramics and textiles.
Eve Aschheim is an American draftsperson and painter.
Nyapanyapa Yunupingu was an Australian Yolngu painter and printmaker who lived and worked in the community at Yirrkala, Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory. Yunupingu created works of art that drastically diverge from the customs of the Yolngu people and made waves within the art world as a result. Due to this departure from tradition within her oeuvre, Yunupingu's work had varying receptions from within her community and the broader art world.
Owen Yalandja is Aboriginal Australian carver, painter and singer of the Kuninjku people from western Arnhem Land, Australia. A senior member of the Dangkorlo clan, who are the Indigenous custodians of an important site related to female water spirits known as yawkyawk, Yalandja has become internationally renowned for his painted carvings of these spirits, as well as his paintings on eucalyptus bark.
Kay Lindjuwanga is an Aboriginal Australian artist from Maningrida in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is known for her bark paintings which often make use of Aboriginal rrark designs.
Gali Yalkarriwuy Gurruwiwi (1942–2020) was an internationally acclaimed Aboriginal Australian artist from Elcho Island (Galiwin'ku), an island off the coast of Northeast Arnhem Land. Gali was a Yolngu Mala leader and Gälpu clan representative, a clan group of the Dhuwa moiety, as well as a prominent member of the Galiwin'ku Uniting Church. He was best known for his Morning Star poles which have been featured in international exhibitions in London and the United States and for his unique melding of traditional Yolngu beliefs and Christian theology.
Fumio Yoshimura was a Japanese and American sculptor. He was known for his wooden replicas of everyday objects such as plants and machines.
Afro-Atlantic Histories is the title of a touring art exhibition first held jointly at the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) and the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in Brazil in 2018. The exhibition is made up of artworks and historical artifacts from and about the African diaspora, specifically focusing "on the 'ebbs and flows' among Africa, Americas, Caribbean and also Europe." Built around the concept of histórias, a Portuguese term that can include fictional and non-fictional narratives, Afro-Atlantic Histories explores the artistic, political, social, and personal impacts and legacies of the Transatlantic slave trade. The exhibition has been hailed by critics as a landmark show of diasporic African art. Following the original 2018 exhibition, MASP partnered with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to bring a version of the exhibition to several museums in the United States from 2021 to 2024. The exhibition is currently on view at the Dallas Museum of Art from October 22, 2023 to February 11, 2024.
Barbara Dawson is an Irish author, editor, art historian, gallery director, and curator. She is curator of several art exhibitions including the works of notable artists such as Francis Bacon (2009).
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