William Griswold (museum director)

Last updated

William Griswold
Born (1960-09-19) September 19, 1960 (age 63)
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, US
Education Trinity College (BA)
Courtauld Institute of Art (PhD)
Occupation(s)Museum director and curator
Employer Cleveland Museum of Art
Honors Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Royal Order of Sahametrei

William M. Griswold (born September 19, 1960) is an American museum director and curator who is director of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Contents

After earning a PhD on the drawings of Piero di Cosimo in 1988, Griswold held positions as a drawings curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Morgan Library & Museum. Moving into museum administration, he became associate director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in 2001 and served as its interim director from 2004 to 2005. He then served as director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art from 2005 to 2007 and director of the Morgan from 2007 to 2014.

Griswold assumed his position at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2014, succeeding David Franklin as the ninth director of the museum. In his tenure, he has overseen initiatives to grow and diversify the museum's audience and address barriers present for members of underrepresented groups within its operations. In the two instances that museum staff discovered the questionable provenance of one of its objects, he has personally led negotiations resulting in their return to their respective countries of origin.

Early life and education

William Griswold was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on September 19, 1960. [1] [2] His father, Robert Edward Griswold, worked as a clinical chemist, while his mother was a homemaker. [3] [4] Growing up in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, [3] Griswold's family regularly went on road trips to visit museums. [5]

Griswold obtained a bachelor's degree in art history from Trinity College in Connecticut, where he also took classes on French and English literature. Afterwards he went to the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, where he studied the Florentine drawings of the early Renaissance period. In 1988, he completed his dissertation on the collected drawings of Piero di Cosimo, whose "originality and eccentricity" he was drawn to. [5] [6] He would first visit the Cleveland Museum of Art in the 1980s, where he would later serve as director. He admired its holdings of Asian art and The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew . [5] [7]

Curatorial work

The Morgan Library & Museum, where Griswold was a curator and later director, pictured in 2006. Pierpont Morgan Library NY 2006 crop.jpg
The Morgan Library & Museum, where Griswold was a curator and later director, pictured in 2006.

Griswold first worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City from 1988 to 1995, where he cataloged Italian drawings as a curator of drawings and prints. [6] [8] From 1995 to 2001, he was the Charles W. Engelhard Curator at the Pierpont Morgan Library and managed its department of drawings and prints. He oversaw the creation of the museum's Drawing Study Center and organized its first major exhibition of 20th-century art [6] and acclaimed exhibitions of the collections of Pierre Matisse and the Hermitage and Pushkin Museums. [3] From 1996 to 2001, Griswold was an associate editor of Master Drawings, [9] [10] a periodical that primarily covers drawings in America and Europe from the fourteenth-century onward. [11]

In 2001, Griswold joined the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. As its associate director, he worked with the museum's six curatorial departments. In collaboration with Peggy Fogelman, the museum's assistant director for education and interpretation, he worked on projects such as a family space and the expansion of museum's education programs. [5] After the sudden resignation of director Deborah Gribbon, Griswold became interim director of the Getty Museum in 2004. In 2005, he was selected as the director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), succeeding Evan Mauer. [6]

Administrative positions

When Griswold became director of the Mia in 2005, the museum was nearing completion of a $113 million expansion designed by American architect Michael Graves. In his tenure, he worked to complete the museum's expansion, oversee the installation of more than thirty of its galleries, [5] [7] and organize a funding campaign supporting the museum's endowment. [12] He was later named to the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his work with the French Regional & American Museum Exchange while Mia director. [13] In 2007, the Morgan Library & Museum announced its intention to name Griswold as its director. [3]

Griswold returned to the Morgan in 2008 to direct the museum. [12] There, he oversaw the expansion and diversification of the Morgan's collections, exhibitions, and curatorial departments. Previously, the museum's collection mainly covered Western art before 1900. [7] In an effort to make the museum more relevant to younger audiences, Griswold expanded the museum's drawings department and added a photography department, appointing Princeton University Art Museum curator Joel Smith as the museum's first photography curator in 2012. [14] [15] He oversaw the installation of temporary sculptures by artists such as Mark di Suvero and Xu Bing and presented exhibitions of contemporary art. [12] He also initiated the digitization of over fifteen thousand works that comprised the museum's collection of Old Master drawings. [7] Four years after a renovation and expansion of the museum designed by Renzo Piano, he preceded over a $4.5 million project that restored the McKim building that originally housed the museum. [16] [17]

Cleveland Museum of Art

Griswold has directed the Cleveland Museum of Art (pictured in 2015) since 2014. Cleveland Museum of Art (18662822189).jpg
Griswold has directed the Cleveland Museum of Art (pictured in 2015) since 2014.

The Cleveland Museum of Art named Griswold their ninth director in May 2014. [18] His appointment followed the completion of an eight-year $320 million renovation and expansion designed by Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly [19] which increased the museum's size by fifty-one percent. [20] Griswold commented on the circumstances preceding his appointment in a 2017 interview with arts journalist Lee Rosenbaum: [21]

I came to Cleveland after a period of repeated changes in the director's office over a number of years... I had incurred a real moral obligation and to serve that institution [the Cleveland Museum of Art] for a good, long period of time, and to break the cycle of departures. It wouldn't be right to consider anything else right now.

After becoming director, Griswold filled vacancies left by curators during or in the aftermath of the directorship of his predecessor, David Franklin. [19] In 2016, he coordinated with museum staff to produce events and exhibitions for a celebration of the museum's centennial. [19] In 2017, his tenure as director was extended through 2024. [4] In 2018, the museum announced an initiative aimed at growing and diversifying its audience and eliminating "barriers for historically underrepresented groups in every aspect of the museum's operations". [22]

This marble portrait head of Drusus Julius Caesar was acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2012 and returned to Italy in 2017. Drusus Minor portrait head, probably after 23 AD, Roman, North Africa, marble - Cleveland Museum of Art - DSC08282.JPG
This marble portrait head of Drusus Julius Caesar was acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2012 and returned to Italy in 2017.

In two instances, the museum discovered the questionable provenance of objects in its collection, following research by staff members. These objects were a tenth-century Cambodian sculpture of Hanuman and an ancient Roman portrait of Drusus Julius Caesar, both purchased by the museum in good faith. Griswold led negotiations with the governments of Italy and Cambodia that resulted in the return of the objects to Cambodia and Italy. [4] [23] The resolution of the situation with the Cambodian government in 2015 also resulted in the museum obtaining a fragment required in the reconstruction of a Krishna statue. [24] Griswold was awarded a medal of the Royal Order of Sahametrei following the exchange with Cambodia. [23] The Cleveland Arts Prize awarded him their inaugural Barbara Robinson Prize in 2018, citing his "proactive approach to returning undocumented antiquities to their rightful origin." [25]

In 2019, Griswold announced that the museum had released more than thirty thousand images of its works and data for 61,500 works from its collection into the public domain as part of its open access initiative. [26] In 2020, Griswold announced temporary staffing reductions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [27] [28] In 2023, museum trustees extended his tenure, originally set to end in 2024, through early 2027. [29]

Personal life

Griswold lives with his partner, Christopher Malstead, who has worked for Wells Fargo. [1] [5] [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Modern Art</span> Art museum in New York City, U.S.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The institution was conceived in 1929 by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss, and Mary Quinn Sullivan. Initially located in the Heckscher Building on Fifth Avenue, it opened just days after the Wall Street Crash. The museum, America's first devoted exclusively to modern art, was led by A. Conger Goodyear as president and Abby Rockefeller as treasurer, with Alfred H. Barr Jr. as its first director. Under Barr's leadership, the museum's collection rapidly expanded, beginning with an inaugural exhibition of works by European modernists. Despite financial challenges, including opposition from John D. Rockefeller Jr., the museum moved to several temporary locations in its early years, and John D. Rockefeller Jr. eventually donated the land for its permanent site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philadelphia Museum of Art</span> Art museum in Pennsylvania, United States

The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at Eakins Oval. The museum administers collections containing over 240,000 objects including major holdings of European, American and Asian origin. The various classes of artwork include sculpture, paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, armor, and decorative arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleveland Museum of Natural History</span> Natural history museum in Cleveland, Ohio, US

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum located approximately five miles (8 km) east of downtown Cleveland, Ohio in University Circle, a 550-acre concentration of educational, cultural and medical institutions. The museum was established in 1920 by Cyrus S. Eaton to perform research, education and development of collections in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, botany, geology, paleontology, wildlife biology, and zoology. The museum traces its roots to the Ark, formed in 1836 on Cleveland's Public Square by William Case, the Academy of Natural Science formed by William Case and Jared Potter Kirtland, and the Kirtland Society of Natural History, founded in 1869 and reinvigorated in 1922 by the trustees of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleveland Museum of Art</span> Art museum in Cleveland, Ohio

The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, the museum houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 61,000 works of art from around the world. The museum provides free general admission to the public. With a $755 million endowment, it is the fourth-wealthiest art museum in the United States. With about 770,000 visitors annually (2018), it is one of the most visited art museums in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harald Szeemann</span> Swiss artist, curator and art historian (1933–2005)

Harald Szeemann was a Swiss curator, artist, and art historian. Having curated more than 200 exhibitions, many of which have been characterized as groundbreaking, Szeemann is said to have helped redefine the role of an art curator. It is believed that Szeemann elevated curating to a legitimate art-form itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minneapolis Institute of Art</span> Art museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United States. Its permanent collection spans about 20,000 years and represents the world's diverse cultures across six continents. The museum has seven curatorial areas: Arts of Africa & the Americas; Contemporary Art; Decorative Arts, Textiles & Sculpture; Asian Art; Paintings; Photography and New Media; and Prints and Drawings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viktor Schreckengost</span> American painter

Viktor Schreckengost was an American industrial designer as well as a teacher, sculptor, and artist. His wide-ranging work included noted pottery designs, industrial design, bicycle design and seminal research on radar feedback. Schreckengost's peers included designers Raymond Loewy, Norman Bel Geddes, Eva Zeisel, and Russel Wright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland</span> Art Museum in Cleveland, Ohio

The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland is a contemporary art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the only contemporary art venue of its kind in Metropolitan Cleveland. The organisation was founded by Marjorie Talalay, Agnes Gund, and Nina Castelli Sundell in 1968 and has undergone several name and venue changes in the years following its 1968 founding. Originally known as The New Gallery, the museum was rebranded as the Cleveland Centre for Contemporary Art in 1984. The gallery has operated under its current branding as the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (moCa) since 2002.

Thomas Patrick Campbell is the director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, overseeing the de Young and Legion of Honor museums. He served as the director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art between 2009 and 2017. On 30 June 2017, Campbell stepped down as director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art under pressure and accepted the Getty Foundation's Rothschild Fellowship for research and study at both the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and at Waddesdon Manor, in the UK.

Thelma Golden is the Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, United States. She is noted as one of the originators of the term post-blackness. From 2017 to 2020, ArtReview chose her annually as one of the 10 most influential people in the contemporary art world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherman Lee</span>

Sherman Emery Lee was an American academic, writer, art historian and expert on Asian art. He was Director of the Cleveland Museum of Art from 1958 to 1983.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Rogers Cox</span> American painter (1915–1990)

John Rogers Cox was an American painter from Terre Haute, Indiana. His style and subject matter align him with the Regionalist and Magic Realist landscape tradition.

David Franklin is an art historian with expertise in Italian Renaissance art, a curator, and a former art museum director.

Timothy F. Rub is an American museum director and art historian. He previously held the position of the George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, one of the largest museums in the United States.

William J. Chiego is an American museum curator, who has been director of the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio since 1991.

Colin Barry Bailey is a British art historian and museum director. Bailey is currently the Director of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. He is a scholar of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French art, specifically on the artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Katharine Lee Reid was an American art historian, curator, and museum director. She was a director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Cleveland Museum of Art and deputy director of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Joseph Feder McCrindle was an American art collector, philanthropist, and founder and editor of Transatlantic Review.

Aimee Ng is a specialist in Italian Renaissance art, curator at The Frick Collection, writer and podcaster.

Kevin Salatino is an American curator and museum director. He currently serves as chair and Anne Vogt Fuller and Marion Titus Searle Curator in the department of prints and drawings of the Art Institute of Chicago. He was formerly a director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and the art collection of the Huntington Library.

References

  1. 1 2 Abbe, Mary (April 2, 2006). "Dossier: William M. Griswold". Star Tribune . p. F16. Retrieved June 20, 2022– via newspapers.com.
  2. ↑ Litt, Steven (September 19, 2022). "Cleveland Museum of Art's new strategic plan envisions a more diverse, welcoming, audience-centered institution". Cleveland.com . Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Vogel, Carol (May 24, 2007). "Morgan Library Chooses Familiar Face for Its Next Chief". The New York Times . Archived from the original on February 12, 2020. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 Litt, Steven (July 27, 2017). "Cleveland Museum of Art extends Griswold's contract as director through 2024, pursuing 'bright future' after turmoil (photos)". Cleveland.com . Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Brill, Jason (June 1, 2016). "Art & Mind". Cleveland Magazine . Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Muchnic, Suzanne (July 21, 2005). "Getty is losing chief curator" . Los Angeles Times . Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Litt, Steven (June 26, 2014). "William Griswold's leadership at the Morgan Library & Museum offers tantalizing clues about how he'll lead the Cleveland Museum of Art". Cleveland.com . Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  8. ↑ Lewine, Edward (October 15, 1995). "New Yorkers & Co.; The Power Brokers of Old Drawings". The New York Times . Archived from the original on May 26, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  9. ↑ "The Getty Gets Griswold". Art on Paper . 6 (2): 31. November–December 2001. JSTOR   24558460.
  10. ↑ "From the Editors: Master Drawings Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary (1962-2012)". Master Drawings. 50 (1): 7. Autumn 2012. ISSN   0025-5025. JSTOR   41478018.
  11. ↑ "About". Master Drawings. Archived from the original on February 17, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  12. 1 2 3 Vogel, Carol (May 20, 2014). "Cleveland Hires Leader of Morgan". The New York Times . Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  13. ↑ "Griswold Honored by French Government" (PDF) (Press release). Morgan Library & Museum. September 18, 2008. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  14. 1 2 Litt, Steven (May 20, 2014). "William Griswold, director of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, is named director of the Cleveland Museum of Art". Cleveland.com . Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  15. ↑ Schafer, Ellen (May 20, 2014). "William M. Griswold to Lead Cleveland Museum of Art". ARTnews . Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  16. ↑ Vogel, Carol (May 11, 2010). "At the Morgan, Gently Restoring A Treasure-Filled Building". The New York Times . Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  17. ↑ Maloney, Jennifer (May 20, 2014). "Cleveland Museum of Art Taps Morgan Library's William Griswold as Its New Director" . The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  18. ↑ "Cleveland Museum of Art Extends Director William Griswold's Contract". Artforum . July 28, 2017. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  19. 1 2 3 Litt, Steven (August 6, 2017). "Griswold called 'antidote' for staff at Cleveland Museum of Art". Cleveland.com . Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  20. ↑ Litt, Steven (October 23, 2016). "Cleveland Museum of Art completes $320M campaign, which paid for big expansion (photos)". Cleveland.com . Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  21. ↑ Rosenbaum, Lee (April 25, 2017). ""Moral Obligation": My Chat with Cleveland Museum of Art's William Griswold (plus Benjamin & Rub)". CultureGrrl. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  22. ↑ Litt, Steven (August 12, 2018). "Cleveland Museum of Art unveils first 'Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Plan'". Cleveland.com . Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  23. 1 2 Litt, Steven (May 13, 2015). "It's official: Cleveland Museum of Art returns Hanuman statue to Cambodia (photos)". Cleveland.com . Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  24. ↑ Elliott, Jamie (November 3, 2015). "Statue fragments returned to Cleveland museum". The Phnom Penh Post . Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  25. ↑ DeOreo, Dave; Barnett, David C. (August 2, 2018). "Cleveland Arts Prize 2018 Winners". Ideastream . Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  26. ↑ McCarthy, Douglas (January 23, 2019). "Open access arrives at the Cleveland Museum of Art". Europeana . Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  27. ↑ Litt, Steven (March 26, 2020). "Cleveland Museum of Art announces pay cuts, furloughs, anticipating $5 million revenue loss due to coronavirus shutdown". Cleveland.com . Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  28. ↑ Barnett, David C. (October 7, 2020). "Cleveland Museum Of Art Cuts Positions, Forecasts $6.2M Shortfall". Ideastream . Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  29. ↑ Litt, Steven (June 16, 2023). "Cleveland Museum of Art trustees re-up William Griswold's contract as director through 2027". Cleveland.com . Retrieved August 14, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.