The Dallas Museum of Art went on the hunt for a new director last fall when it parted ways with Maxwell Anderson. Today it announced the appointment of Dr. Agustín Arteaga to the post (formally titled the Eugene McDermott Director). Arteaga is the current director of the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) in Mexico City. He’ll start work at the DMA on September 1.
Via the DMA: “Prior to his tenure at MUNAL, Arteaga was the director of the Museo de Arte de Ponce (MAP) in Puerto Rico, and the founding director of the contemporary art museum Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) Fundación Costantini in Argentina.”
(Op-ed note: Glasstire likes a Mexico-Texas art connection. We want more of it, and as trends go, there should and will be more.)
If you’re wondering what Arteaga brings to the table, this seems to be the key takeaway from the museum’s announcement:
As Director and Chief Executive Officer at MUNAL since 2013, Arteaga has enhanced its exhibition program through key international partnerships, dramatically grown its annual attendance, established new streams of institutional support, and expanded the museum’s collection of over 7,000 works with more than 35 strategic gifts and acquisitions—including major works by Diego Rivera, Francisco Zúñiga, Gabriel Orozco, and Abraham Cruzvillegas. Arteaga led the museum through a five-year strategic planning process that focused on developing new audiences, implementing new technologies, and ensuring financial stability for the institution. Under his leadership, MUNAL has established individual and corporate sponsorships, which are unprecedented in Mexico. MUNAL also saw an increase in attendance of 30 percent during his tenure through the presentation of increasingly innovative exhibitions and programs that highlighted the museum’s outstanding collections in new ways.
You can read the rest here.
