The Dallas Museum of Artwork (DMA), which is within the early phases of an bold campus transformation, has picked Brian Ferriso—who will inaugurate a renovation of the Portland Artwork Museum (PAM) in Oregon this autumn—to be its subsequent director. Ferriso may have lower than two weeks between the 20 November inauguration of the $111m enlargement of the PAM, the place he has been the director since 2006, and his first day on the job in Dallas on 1 December.
Gowri Natarajan Sharma, the president of the DMA’s board of trustees, described Ferriso as “a frontrunner with a confirmed observe report in realising profitable capital campaigns and sustainable organisational progress. He has formed an bold imaginative and prescient for the Portland Artwork Museum and developed programmes that advance its cultural, civic and social function within the metropolis and area.” She added: “With this highly effective mixture of expertise and experience, we’re assured that Brian is the correct director to shepherd the DMA into its subsequent period as a thriving establishment with a rising assortment that’s extra inclusive, extra accessible and extra reflective of the group we serve.”
Throughout his almost twenty years on the helm of the PAM, Ferriso elevated the museum’s endowment by $40m, greater than doubled the curatorial employees and eradicated $7m in unfunded debt. Throughout that point, the museum achieved worldwide prominence as a co-presenting establishment of Jeffrey Gibson’s exhibition within the US Pavilion on the 2024 Venice Biennale. Ferriso additionally led a fundraising marketing campaign that has introduced in additional than $140m for the development of the museum’s enlargement and for its endowment. The enlargement, designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects of Portland and Vinci Hamp Architects of Chicago, will join the museum’s two present buildings and lead to 95,000 sq. ft of recent or renovated public and exhibition areas.
In his new function in Texas, Ferriso will lead the DMA by means of a $150m revamp of its campus. Two years in the past, the museum chosen the Madrid- and Berlin-based agency Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos to guide that mission, which is now coming into its schematic design section. (Shortly after selecting the agency for its enlargement, the museum laid off 8% of its employees and in the reduction of its opening hours.)
Aerial view rendering of the Dallas Museum of Artwork renovation and enlargement© Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos
That is the primary vital renovation of the DMA’s Edward Larrabee Barnes-designed constructing because it was inaugurated in 1984. The mission will embody the creation of a brand new up to date artwork gallery, restoring among the symmetry of Barnes’s authentic design, the addition of clear and translucent glazing in locations to create a better sense of openness, new customer facilities in addition to improved back-of-house options like a brand new lined loading dock and revamped workplace area and conservation amenities.
“I’ve lengthy believed that museums can play a significant function inside the civic and social material of a group, and because the metropolis’s museum, the Dallas Museum of Artwork is the right place for me to hold on this work,” Ferriso stated in an announcement. “The museum is at an inflection level, with a formidable legacy behind it and a brand new future forward, catalysed by the present enlargement mission that may enable the DMA to determine better connections with the group by means of its excellent collections and programmes.”
Earlier than taking the helm in Portland, Ferriso was the director of the Philbrook Museum of Artwork in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for 4 years. He’ll succeed Agustín Arteaga, who served because the DMA’s director for 9 years earlier than leaving final spring to take up the function of director and chief govt on the Crocker Artwork Museum in Sacramento, California.
