First candidate to lead UI Museum of Art announced

IOWA CITY -- The first candidate for the position of director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art will visit the UI campus June 28 through June 30.

Kent Lydecker is the former Frederick P. and Sandra P. Rose associate director for education at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Lydecker will participate in a public forum at 4 p.m. Tuesday in the Tippie Auditorium, room W151 of the Pappajohn Business Building. Lydecker will speak on “Issues for Leading University Art Museums in the 21st Century.”

Lydecker earned his bachelor's degree from Rice University and his doctoral degree from Johns Hopkins University. From 1990 to 2008, he directed the educational work of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. During his tenure, the museum offered more than 20,000 events each year. Before that, he was executive director of museum education at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Additional candidates to lead the UI Museum of Art will visit campus in July. Information about each candidate will be released just before his or her visit.

David Johnsen, dean of the UI College of Dentistry, is leading the search committee, with Interim Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel Carroll Reasoner as vice chairwoman.

The UI Museum of Art is currently without a permanent home, after being displaced by the flood of 2008.  The director will play a leading role in planning and fundraising for a new museum building. The position reports to the provost.