The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

9 October 2018

Warhol Foundation Appoints New Board Chair and Three New Board Members

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has elected a new board chair, Julián Zugazagoitia, and three new board members: Naomi Beckwith, Cary J. Davis, and Deborah Willis, Ph.D. Zugazagoitia succeeds Igor DaCosta, who recently completed his term of distinguished service. The Warhol Foundation board is a diverse group of 17 artists, curators, directors, scholars, and visual arts leaders from throughout the country.

Joel Wachs, President of the Foundation, said, “Since he joined the board seven years ago, Julián has made a significant impact and we are looking forward to his leadership as chair. At the same time, we are honored to welcome Naomi, Cary, and Deborah; their perspectives will be vital as we seek to support artist-centered institutions in the field.”

Julián Zugazagoitia has been the Director and CEO of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City since 2010. During his tenure, attendance has grown 43%. Known for his high-energy leadership and collaborative spirit, Zugazagoitia previously served as Director and CEO of El Museo del Barrio in New York, where he oversaw a $44 million renovation project. He has also held positions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, UNESCO, and the Getty Conservation Institute, and has curated exhibitions internationally.

Naomi Beckwith is the Manilow Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), where her exhibition and book projects focus on the impact of identity and multi-disciplinary practices for shaping contemporary art. Prior to the MCA, she held positions at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and the Studio Museum in Harlem. She served on the jury of the 56th Venice Biennale and was the 2015 recipient of the New Leadership award from ArtTable.

Cary J. Davis is a senior partner at Warburg Pincus, and is responsible for the firm’s investments in the software and financial technology sectors. In addition to serving as a director on seven corporate boards, he is Chairman-Elect of the American Academy in Rome, and has been Chairman of the Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, Chairman of the Boys Prep charter school, an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, and a member of the Contemporary Arts Council at the Museum of Modern Art.

Deborah Willis, Ph.D, is a photographer and one of the nation’s leading historians of African American photography and curator of African American culture. She is University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She has received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship and was a Richard D. Cohen Fellow in African and African American Art, Hutchins Center, Harvard University; a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, and an Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. Fellow.

“The terrific range of project proposals we receive each year speaks to the mobile and porous disciplinary boundaries of contemporary art practice, and to the rich and inventive ways writers approach art today. They are alert to the urgent need to expand the conventions of art history and criticism with ideas from other discourses, such as black studies, transnational and diaspora studies, gender and women’s studies, and LGBT studies. The work of lesser known and overlooked artists and art communities continues to be mined, with writers articulating new ways to counter the striking imbalances of race, class and gender that continue to affect the arts and the culture industry.”

Pradeep Dalal, Program Director,  The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant