UI committee seeks new art museum director

A University of Iowa search committee is seeking a new Museum of Art director to help plan and fund raise for a new museum.

The search committee, formed by Provost Wallace Loh in January, spent more than two months gathering candidates on its own before recently deciding to look for a search firm with expertise in finding art museum directors, Loh said Thursday. Loh capped potential search costs at $50,000, to be paid with private dollars.

“This is no ordinary search,” Loh said, noting the new director will need skills in managing an art museum but also in major fundraising and planning for a new facility.

The 18-member search committee is led by David Johnsen, dean of the UI College of Dentistry. Pamela White has been interim director of the museum since May 2008.

Loh originally wanted a new director hired by July 1, but he said that may be delayed since the committee decided to hire a search firm.

Decisions about where a new museum will be built, the facility design and other details won't be made until after a new director is hired, Loh said.

“The director is going to play a major, major role in the planning of a new museum,” he said.

UI President Sally Mason on Thursday said in a statement she will carefully review the recent recommendations of a museum envisioning committee before determining the next steps. Mason said the committee put considerable thought and effort into “shaping a compelling vision for a new museum of art.”

The envisioning committee in a report to Mason recommended building a new museum in the Old Capitol District, near the busy center of campus. Committee members also said the museum replacement should be high on the UI's flood-recovery priority list.

Art was removed from the former museum on the Iowa River during the June 2008 flood, and the collection has not returned to that facility. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will not pay to restore that building as an art museum, nor will FEMA pay to build a new museum, meaning much of the cost must come from donors.