Head of N.H. gallery named director of Toledo art museum

Brian P. Kennedy, 48, comes to Toledo from Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. NOT BLADE PHOTO Enlarge

Irish-born Brian P. Kennedy, 48, has been named the ninth director of the Toledo Museum of Art and is slated to begin work on Sept. 1.

For the last five years, Mr. Kennedy has led the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., established in 1772. The museum has 70,000 objects in its collection.

He previously was director of the National Gallery of Australia and assistant director of the National Gallery of Ireland.

"I am delighted to be coming to northwest Ohio to lead the Toledo Museum of Art," he said in a statement. "Its staff, collections, and facilities are of the highest quality. I look forward to building on its achievement and becoming closely involved with the Toledo community, renowned for its warmth of manner and support for its distinguished art museum."

Joy Kenseth, chairman of the art history department at Dartmouth, told The Blade last night that "Toledo is very lucky, and we're going to have a huge loss.

He's fabulous. He's very active, energetic, and extremely personable."

Ms. Kenseth described Mr. Kennedy as "a fine historian who knows an awful lot about aboriginal and contemporary art."

Mr. Kennedy's appointment, which will be officially announced today, concludes a seven-month search, during which two museum administrators handled directorial duties.

Betsy Brady, chairman of the museum's board of directors, described Mr. Kennedy as having a warm and friendly personality, a love for community engagement, and a commitment to diversity.

"Brian is well recognized internationally as an exciting young director," she said. The Toledo museum has about 30,000 objects in its collection.

George Shackelford, chairman of the department of European art and Solomon curator of modern art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, said he has known Mr. Kennedy for a long time.

"I have known Brian for many years since he was in Australia before he went to the Hood, and I have always had the most respect for him for his hard work, commitment, great charm, and spirit," said Mr. Shackelford, who is a former member of the Hood's advisory board. "He's a good guy who will be good for Toledo."

Graham Beal, director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, said it's not unusual to for administrators to work in academic and civic museums. With its large collection and free-standing building, the Hood is considered a museum not just for Dartmouth but New Hampshire.

"Brian is very straightforward," said Mr. Beal, a native of England. "Like many of us, Brian is very much in favor of a museum that's accessible and is rethinking the way we've done business for 100 years, the museum as a social enterprise. … I'm excited to have someone like Brian just down the road."

Leading a museum with an important collection, a tradition of education, a solid relationship with its community, and a good endowment is an enviable job, said Michael Conforti, who was the president of the Association of Art Museum Directors until a few weeks ago. Mr. Kennedy is a member of the association.

"Brian is really quite extraordinary, and Toledo's very lucky to have someone with a tie to serious museum practices," said Mr. Conforti, director of the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass. "He comes with an unusual set of qualities," including having been at a regional U.S. museum and a national museum. Toledoans will find him very personable and outgoing, he said.

"He has great integrity, a considerable knowledge of art, and a real sense of what a community needs to make a museum active," he said. "He will get the civic leaders more and more involved in the museum so it can reach its goals."

"Your message should be one of hope and promise," said Mr. Conforti.

As a boy, Mr. Kennedy studied art at the National Gallery of Art in Dublin, and at the instigation of his aunt, started collecting art postcards when he was 13. By the time he started college, his postcard collection had grown to 5,000 cards which he could lay out chronologically according to artist and thereby observe the artist's progression over a lifetime.

At Dartmouth College, he occasionally taught classes in courses such as visual literacy. The Hood Museum of Art, in a freestanding building, encourages faculty and students to use objects in its large collection for study, visual aids, and research. The museum has struggled with recent budget reductions because of a sharp drop in its endowment.

From 1997 to 2004, Mr. Kennedy headed Australia's government-supported national gallery in Canberra. When he announced his resignation there, Harold Mitchell, the gallery's chairman, said of Mr. Kennedy: "He made it his business to get to know and understand not only the arts in Australia but the artists, especially indigenous artists, and the circumstances in which they live and work.

"He sought to share his vision for the National Gallery by increasing the program of loans, placing iconic works of art in so many of our regional cities and towns, and by launching the National Gallery's Web site."

In Dublin, he was assistant director of the National Gallery of Ireland from 1989 to 1997. He earned bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees from University College, Dublin, focusing on history and the history of art.

He's written several books and articles, including Sean Scully: The Art of the Stripe and Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, both in 2009. He's also written about Irish artists and the arts in Ireland.

Mr. Kennedy, his wife Mary, and teenage son Eamon will relocate to the Toledo area. Their daughter, Anne, attends the University of New Hampshire.

The Toledo museum's previous director, Don Bacigalupi, ended his six-year stint in October to assume the top post at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art being constructed on 100 wooded acres in Bentonville, Ark.

Crystal Bridges is the vision of Alice Walton, whose father, Sam Walton, founded Wal-Mart.

Contact Tahree Lane at:

tlane@theblade.com

or 419-724-6075.