The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) in Texas has appointed Brian Ferriso, current director of the Portland Museum of Art (PAM), Oregon, as its next director.
He succeeded Agustín Arteaga, who resigned last year and was appointed director of the Sacramento Croc Museum of Art earlier this year. Ferriso will begin at DMA on December 1.
Ferriso has served as a director of PAM since 2006. During his tenure, he increased the museum’s endowment by $40 million and removed $7 million in fundless debt from his balance sheet. Additionally, he doubled the museum’s curatorial staff, with about half of the positions permanently granting them. Now, museums can also offer visitors aged 17 and under for free and as part of their art visit donation program.
Under his leadership, PAM also went through many transformations, including focusing on diversifying its permanent collection, adding important works by underrepresented artists, focusing on Indigenous, Black and female artists. Last year, PAM was the co-commissioned body of Jeffrey Gibson’s American Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
And, in November, PAM will open a major expansion that will add nearly 100,000 square feet and be realized through more than $140 million in construction and donations for capital activities.
“Brian is an experienced, experienced museum director who has a significant track record in Portland,” Sharon Young, DMA’s DMA board chairman and male principal of the search committee, told him. Artnews In the interview. “When we dream about our future as a 21st century museum and what it might look like, we are looking for someone to think with us, think with us and lead us to that place. Brian has reached the top with everything we hope to accomplish and hope the director can solve this problem and excitement.”
Ferriso said in an interview that part of his board of directors was through thinking about the idea of what it means to be a “Museum of the 21st Century.” Although the museum may have originated from the 19th-century curiosity cabinet, which focused on different objects, Ferriso said he believed “in the three pillars of the 21st century art museum: objects, figures, plans.” He added that the museum should focus on people, focusing on “people who work there, people in the community, people who support it, people who artists” and those who are planning-centered, whose exhibitions and community activities “activate art to connect with people more deeply and serve their civic functions.”
He continued: “The approach I took in Portland was that I set up staff, programs, curators, [thinking] About, how do we create community relevance? How do we change the program? How do we become human-centered? For us, the final part of the puzzle is the building that supports people and plans that have been developed. I think the Dalas Museum of Art is a great place to realize this vision. ”
The completion of PAM construction is particularly key in Ferriso’s recruitment, as DMA also plans to expand its current Edward Larrabee Barnes-designed building, which opened in 1984, which opened in 1984. In 2023, the museum chose Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos of a construction company in Madrid and Berlin, which is on the foot of Redesign for Redesign for Redesign for Redesign for Redesign for Redesign for Redesign for Redesign for Redesign for Redesign for Redesign for Redesign for Redesign for Redesign for Redesign for Redesign. The DMA has not announced details of this expansion, including the planned opening date, the number of additional square feet to be added, and the capital activity targets for funds.
Young said while considering the expansion that the board is looking for “people who match the ambitions of the board, able to execute a large project and define a museum that was built 40 years ago over the next 40, 50, 100 years ago. We want someone to bring the community into the community and understand that the museum plays a major role in the civic community.”
Ferriso said he was interested in DMA work because after nearly two decades working in Portland and completing PAM expansion, he began to think about what might be next. “I admire DMA very much because I’ve known each other for many years,” he said, noting that his interest in architecture, relevance and community was also in line with my interest in the community when he was often at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma from 2002 to 2006. This is what I really connect with the community.
In addition to the expansion, another major part of the DMA future that Ferriso has to navigate is a gift of major commitment. In 2005, as part of the DMA’s centenary celebrations, three of the three Dallas partners – Marguerite and Robert Hoffman, Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, as well as Deedie and Rusty Rose, all sent their collections to the museum.
In the museum world, this donation rule is somewhat unusual because the DMA will receive anything from its respective collections when it dies, meaning they can continue to add to the collection and sell it from it.
Ferriso said he had a long-term relationship with each family, seeing their bequest and nature as “an important move, a dynamic move. I like everything they laid out. I think it’s really encouraging. They took a dynamic approach, they were still taking a dynamic approach, they were still focusing. Where their collection is, their collection rate is a satisfaction for the times, not the time at that time, and I end up with time. For modern and modern art, it can be the center of the country, if not the world.”
