Search underway for Rose Art Museum director

Brandeis is launching a search for a new director of the Rose Art Museum.

President Jehuda Reinharz has announced the formation of a 10-person search committee chaired by Scott Edmiston, director of the Office of the Arts at Brandeis. The committee is composed of four faculty members, three administrators and a trustee who is an alumnus and also chairs the Rose’s board of overseers. A student and an outside museum professional will be added in the near future.

The position has been vacant since former director Michael Rush left the university in June 2009. Roy Dawes, director of museum operations, has led the Rose since that time and is serving “with distinction,” the president said in a campuswide email. Dawes will continue to hold a senior position at the museum once a director is named.

"This is another significant step in the revitalization of the Rose,” said Edmiston. “There is an exciting momentum and energy at the museum from the current staff, and a new director will help complete the picture.”

The formation of the search committee is the latest of several key milestones for the museum.

•  Last March, the Brandeis board of trustees endorsed the two major recommendations of the ad hoc Future of the Rose Committee: that the Rose remain a university art museum open to the public, and that it be more fully integrated into the broader educational mission of the university.

• In recent months, two important hires were made. The university welcomed Kristin Parker, formerly of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, as collections manager and registrar; and Dabney Hailey, formerly of the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, as director of academic programming.

• Brandeis is now working with Sotheby’s to explore non-sale options that would allow the university to generate revenue from some of the museum’s valuable art holdings while retaining ownership.
• Trustee Stephen Reiner ’61 has agreed to serve as chair of the Rose board of overseers.

“There has been a very deliberate and thoughtful effort to add staff to the Rose, in keeping with the recommendations of the Future of the Rose Committee,” said Reinharz. “We’re pleased with our efforts so far, and we’re looking forward to a very successful search.”

The search committee includes Daniel Feldman, vice president for planning and institutional research; Susan Lichtman, associate professor of fine arts; John Lisman, professor of biology; Robin Miller, professor of Russian literature and chair of German, Russian and Asian languages and literature; Stephen Reiner ’61; Jonathan Unglaub, associate professor of fine arts; and Michaele Whelan, vice provost for academic affairs.

The search committee will begin its work as the Rose is preparing for two new fall exhibitions — “WaterWays” and “Regarding Painting” — both of which will open in early October.

Return to the BrandeisNOW homepage