Breaking Now: Max Anderson, director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, has been named director of the Dallas Museum of Art.
That’s what my sources say…
Why exacty Anderson would want to make the jump is a bit puzzling. The Indianapolis Museum’s collection is about twice the size of the Dallas museum’s. It’s better, too.
However, in Dallas, there’s more money for Anderson to cultivate. He can try to make the museum grow faster. The Dallas Museum is also not the only game in the area: when you consider the wealth of art in Fort Worth — the Kimbell, the Amon Carter, the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art — there’s a good, strong nucleus of excelltent institutions. The opportunity to build may be better.
I can only guess that Dallas’s population is growing faster than Indianapolis’s too. And perhaps Dallas has a greater appetite for contemporary art: though Anderson was trained in antiquities, I have detected a lot of interest in contemporary art when I speak with him. Dallas has a strong contingent of contemporary art collectors.
UPDATE: The news has now been announcced. Anderson will assume his role at the DMA on January 9, 2012.