Everson Museum of Art hires new executive director from contemporary arts center in Houston
Elizabeth Dunbar has been hired as the new executive director of the Everson Museum of Art. She becomes the art institution's 10th director in its 117-year history. She is expected to assume her duties by January 2015. (Photo courtesy of Frank Sherwood White)
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on October 23, 2014 at 10:26 AM, updated October 23, 2014 at 11:19 AM
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Everson Museum of Art board of trustees has hired Elizabeth Dunbar, executive director of DiverseWorks in Houston, as its new executive director. She is expected to assume her new post by January. Dunbar becomes the 10th director of the museum, succeeding Steven Kern, who resigned in January to become the chief executive officer and director of Newark Museum in New Jersey.
Dunbar was one of two finalists among 75 job applicants in the museum's nationwide search. She visited Syracuse for several days last month.
Dunbar's appointment is the beginning of the "rebirth of the museum," said Gary Grossman, president of the Everson's board of trustees. "She is a stunningly perfect candidate," he said Thursday morning. "She has a strong desire to promote an artistic vision." Grossman described Dunbar as bright, poised experienced and grounded.
He said among Dunbar's priorities will be to understand Everson's collection. "She needs to create a strong fiscal foundation and she needs to build an artistic program of excellence and national reputation."
Dunbar said Thursday morning by phone she was impressed on several fronts with the Everson making it an honor to accept the job leading the art museum. She said she has signed a three-year contract.
"The museum has a national reputation," she said. "It's got a very strong collection especially in the pioneering video art as well as the ceramics collection. The building itself is amazing. But, beyond that, I was so impressed with the board of trustees of the Everson in support of the organization especially over the last year, being without a director for as long as it's been. I could just feel in the community how much this is museum is loved and cherished."
Dunbar has served as executive director of DiverseWorks since 2012. On the DiverseWorks website, it is described as an "alternative art space" for contemporary art that includes visual and performing arts, new media and literary art. Dunbar oversees a staff of four at DiverseWorks that is a non-collecting institution. It commissions artists to create new projects. The arts organization's budget ranges from $750,000 to $900,000.
Dunbar's appointment comes during a rocky period in the 117-year-old museum's history. In mid-April the board passed a balanced budget of $1.7 million after the museum started the year with a projected $700,000 deficit. The board took decisive steps in the face of the museum's financial crises in January. Its immediate action was to cut expenses beginning with the cancellation of two traveling exhibitions, "Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Painting From Glasgow Museums," scheduled for April 19 to July 13, and "African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond," slated for Oct. 18 to Jan. 4, 2015.
In the weeks that followed, the board began a nationwide search for a new museum director, cut back museum hours by closing its galleries a second day. The museum is now open Wednesday through Sunday. Designed by world-renowned architect I.M. Pei, the museum opened in October 1968 at 401 Harrison St. in downtown Syracuse.
Dunbar will oversee as a staff of 16 full-time employees at the museum. The organization has been searching for a director of development after Samara Hannah resigned last month to become managing director at Red House Arts Center. Everson also will fill the curator position.
She needs to create a strong fiscal foundation and she needs to build an artistic program of excellence and national reputation.
The new executive director said the museum's current challenges didn't dissuade her from accepting the leadership position. "Certainly, I have worked in other organizations, DiverseWorks being one of them, where I came in and I knew there were financial challenges to start with."
She believes the outlook for the Everson is "promising."
"Certainly, I have the history of working in organizations involved in balancing budgets and raising money. I think, certainly, that's one of the skills they were looking for in the next executive director. And I intend to put those skills and that experience to work."
Grossman did not disclose details on Dunbar's contract or compensation. But the museum's tax returns for 2012 show Kern's base salary was $155,866. He received an additional $13,415 that included $7,091 for retirement and other deferred compensation; $9,035 payment to assist Kern until his Connecticut home sold and $2,123 membership dues to the Century Club.
Before her leadership position at DiverseWorks, Dunbar was curator and associate director at Arthouse, a contemporary arts center in Austin for four years. Her programming was characterized as "edgy" by Glasstire, an online art website in Texas. Her position was eliminated and budget cutbacks were cited as the reason in news story in the Austin American-Statesmen in April 2011.
Dunbar said she could not comment about her departure from Arthouse because of a confidentiality agreement.
She has held curatorial positions at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Mo., Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
She described as one of her strengths her vast experience at arts organizations, large and small. "I have very strong background in more historic work, but I can also bring to the table a lot of experience working with more experimental contemporary work. I think being able to balance the two things putting the contemporary within in the context of the historic that gives me a certain perspective on a more comprehensive collection."
Dunbar grew up in California's Bay Area and in Texas. She earned a bachelor's degree in art history and French from Texas Tech University and master's degrees in museum studies and art history from City University of New York, City College, where she focused on 19th and 20th century American and European art. Dunbar is married and has a 5-year old son and a chocolate Labrador retriever puppy.
Everson has 1,536 members and an endowment of $4.6 million. The museum will receive county government support in 2015 for $115,449 in funds from the hotel room occupancy tax and $31,500 this year from the New York State Council on the Arts. A $300,000 fundraising campaign, "Your Museum, Your Everson," was launched in September. An anonymous individual donated $100,000, with a request the museum raise $200,000 more for a total of $300,000. It already has raised $175,000 in donations and pledges. The deadline for the matching challenge grant is Dec. 31. If Everson should fail to meet its target goal, it will still receive the anonymous donation of $100,000.
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