The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts is pleased to announce the appointment of Paul C. Ha as board chair and the election of three new board members, Dr. Agustín Arteaga, the Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art, interdisciplinary artist and 2019 MacArthur Fellow, Jeffrey Gibson, and Franklin Sirmans, Director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
Ha succeeds Julián Zugazagoitia who recently completed his term of distinguished service, while two other board members also come to the end of their tenures, artist Carrie Mae Weems and Adam Weinberg, Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art. The Warhol Foundation board consists of a diverse group of 17 leaders in the field of visual arts including artists, curators, directors, scholars, and arts professionals from across the country.
“The Board of Directors’ role to guide and strengthen the foundation’s work is pivotal. Their insight and dedication help to ensure that the Warhol Foundation continues to be a leading force in supporting artists and artist-centered organizations,” states Joel Wachs, President of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, “Paul’s extensive experience leading cultural institutions and the invaluable knowledge of our three new board members firmly positions the foundation to move forward through these critical times, and continue to support artists and their communities across the country.”
Paul C. Ha has over twenty-five years of professional experience in the visual arts, building institutions, artists’ careers and contributing new scholarship in the shifting landscape of contemporary art. Ha is currently the Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) List Visual Arts Center. In 2105 he was the commissioner and co-curator of the United States Pavilion at the La Biennale di Venezia 56th International Art Exhibition, presenting artist Joan Jonas. Prior to The List Visual Arts Center Ha was the founding director of the Contemporary Arts Museum St. Louis, and Executive Director of White Columns in New York City. Paul C. Ha joined the board of directors of the Warhol Foundation in 2017.
Dr. Agustín Arteaga joined the Dallas Museum of Art as Eugene McDermott Director in 2016. Prior to his tenure at the Dallas Museum, Arteaga served as the director of the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) in Mexico City, one of Mexico’s largest and most prominent cultural institutions. Additionally, he was the director of the Museo de Arte de Ponce (MAP) in Puerto Rico, and the founding director of the contemporary art museum Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) Fundación Costantini in Argentina. Arteaga has organized more than 100 exhibitions over the course of his career, including major monographic presentations of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Diego Rivera.
An interdisciplinary artist based in Hudson, NY, Jeffrey Gibson’s practice combines the cultural and artistic traditions of his Cherokee and Choctaw heritage with the visual languages of Modernism and themes from contemporary popular and queer culture. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art; Denver Art Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian; National Gallery of Canada; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; among many others. Gibson’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the country and he is a recipient of numerous awards, notably a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2019); Joan Mitchell Foundation, Painters and Sculptors Award (2015); and Creative Capital Foundation Grant (2005).
Franklin Sirmans has been the Director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) since 2015. Prior to joining PAMM, he was the Department Head and Curator of Contemporary art at Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 2010 until 2015. At LACMA Sirmans organized Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada, Variations: Conversations in and Around Abstract Painting, and Futbol: The Beautiful Game, among many other exhibitions. From 2006 to 2010, he was Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Menil Collection in Houston where he organized several exhibitions including NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith, Steve Wolfe: Works on Paper, Maurizio Cattelan: Is There Life Before Death? and Vija Celmins: Television and Disaster, 1964-1966. In 2009 Sirmans was awarded the Gold Rush Award by the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, he was the winner of the 2007 David C. Driskell Prize, and artistic director of Prospect.3 New Orleans from 2012-2014.
The Foundation is honored to welcome these three distinguished individuals to the board of directors, and to have Paul C. Ha as board chair. Their dedication to artists and leadership in the visual arts field will be an invaluable contribution to the important work of the foundation.