March 24--The Art Institute of Chicago Thursday named Ann Goldstein, a curator with long experience in Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Chicago, as its new deputy director and its chair and curator of modern and contemporary art.
In addition to running that growing department, Goldstein will assist new director James Rondeau in implementing the institution's Long Range Plan, which calls for increased collecting and exhibiting of international art as well as potentially adding a new building to the museum complex.
"I aggressively recruited Ann for this position," Rondeau, the previous head of modern and contemporary art, said via e-mail. "Her dynamic vision and deep expertise, honed during more than 30 years as a museum curator and museum director, made her my clear first choice. She is internationally respected and recognized for her commitment and innovative efforts to bring museums alive with incredible artist-centered programs and projects."
Said Rondeau, "Ann will serve as a key ambassador to the Board and to local, national, and international arts communities, and will be a crucial partner to me in achieving the bold future we've charted for the Art Institute."
Goldstein, 58, most recently was director of the Stedelijlk Museum Amsterdam, serving from January, 2010, to December, 2013, guiding the re-opening of that contemporary art and design museum after years of closure for renovation. Before that she spent 26 years rising through the curatorial ranks at Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, in her native city, leaving as senior curator.
Her first museum job came at MCA Chicago, working in 1981-82 as a research assistant cataloguing the museum's artists' books collection, she said, and she is "close colleagues and friends" with leaders at Chicago institutions including the MCA and the Renaissance Society.
"This is a homecoming. My mother was from Chicago so I started to visit as a child and immediately fell in love with the city," she said via e-mail from Cologne, Germany, where her husband, the artist Christopher Williams, is a professor of photography. "I have been fortunate to know and follow the work of many Chicago-based artists, collectors, and galleries as well, and immersing myself in Chicago's art community particularly excites me."
Beginning at the Art Institute at the end of March and coming on board full-time in September, Goldstein said, "This was clearly a dream job -- to work with James and the museum's staff and family to serve this extraordinary institution... It is really compelling to consider how a modern and contemporary collection and program can and should function within the resonant context and continuum of this extraordinary encyclopedic institution."
Goldstein will be the third person at the museum carrying the deputy director title. Martha Tedeschi is Deputy Director for Art and Research, and Judith Russi Kirshner is Deputy Director, and Woman's Board Endowed Chair for Museum Education. Tedeschi, however, has been appointed director of the Harvard University Museums, a post she'll assume in July.
