In naming as its next director Jessica Morgan, now curator of international art (which includes U.S. art) at London’s Tate Modern, the Dia Art Foundation picked a deeply experienced contemporary art curator to succeed Philippe Vergne (named last January to direct LA MOCA). Assuming her new post this January, Morgan is also artistic director of the current Gwangju Biennale in Korea and was previously chief curator at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art and curator at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. She curated LA MOCA’s Urs Fischer survey last year.
Details on other shows that she organized during her various museum gigs can be found in Dia’s press release announcing her appointment.
A Dia spokesperson today told me:
The Trustees unanimously and enthusiastically voted to appoint Jessica. They were impressed by her energy as a leader, deep understanding of contemporary art and artists, and outstanding curatorial achievements. We all are looking forward to working with her.
While her curatorial creds are solid, Morgan’s fundraising acumen remains to be seen. She assured Randy Kennedy of the NY Times that her Tate responsibilities included fundraising, and added: “It’s something I quite enjoy.”
She’d better: Nathalie de Gunzburg, Dia’s chairwoman, told the Times that her institution has raised 60% of the (undisclosed) amount needed for Dia’s planned new project space on 22nd Street in Chelsea. When I asked Dia’s spokesperson for the total dollar amount of the capital campaign, she told me only this:
We are still in the silent phase of fundraising. The campaign includes money for endowment.
When announced in December 2003 under Michael Govan‘s directorship, Dia’s capital campaign goal was $50 million ($10 million having already been raised). That included $30 million for the renovation and endowment of Dia’s then Chelsea facility (which was later sold, after which a different 22nd Street site was acquired) and $20 million towards endowment of Dia’s facility in Beacon, NY, and for support of foundation’s long-term projects.
It’s one thing for a curator to help raise funds for her own exhibitions; quite another to raise big bucks for a capital project on behalf of an institution that has been financially challenged since its big-money patron, Leonard Riggio, announced in 2006 that he was stepping down from the board’s chairmanship.
When his planned move to MOCA was announced, Vergne asserted that “all of the building blocks have been put in place by the Board for Dia to return to New York City.” He added that the foundation “is on the cusp of an exhilarating new era.”
Maybe so. But there’s still a lot of New York fundraising to be done by someone whose professional home since 2002 has been London.