AAMC Seeking Executive Director

Dear Members and Colleagues,

On behalf of the Board of the Association of Art Museum Curators, I write to inform you that Sally Block, Executive Director of the AAMC, will be leaving her position at the end of the year.  In late January, she will relocate to San Diego with her family, and will return to New York next summer to pursue new career opportunities.   I know you will join me in thanking Sally for the stellar job she has done at the AAMC, and congratulating her in advance for the exciting new opportunities that lie ahead for her and for her family. I also know we are deeply sad to see such an accomplished and successful executive director leave the AAMC, where she has been an engaging, nimble, and reliable presence for nearly ten years.

Some of you may not know Sally’s impressive background, which includes a BA in Anthropology and an advanced degree in arts and cultural management from Pratt Institute, where she has also served in a teaching capacity. She has also received several awards in teaching, and in arts and cultural management. Presently and in her spare time, she serves on the national board of ArtTable, where she was just elected President. It reflects well on the AAMC that she has directed her considerable energies to our organization, whose membership has more than quadrupled under her leadership.  During her tenure, the AAMC has given out more than $150,000 in grants to individual curators, always to those most in need of support.  Our conferences have grown in number and in reputation, and now serve as the largest gathering of curators in the world each year.  Sally has led the organization through two different strategic planning cycles beginning in 2005 and again in 2008, and has helped to position mentoring and professional development at the forefront of our values and programmatic offerings – right where they belong.  Her work in helping to launch the Center for Curatorial Leadership, under Elizabeth Easton’s leadership, was instrumental to its early and continuing success.  I would like to emphasize that, most recently, her brilliant idea to move our annual conference to Detroit has been met by enthusiasm, not only from the arts community, but also from local Detroit residents whose notes of thanks have poured in since last week’s announcement.  I know you will join me in thanking Sally for the extraordinary job she has done for all of us.

As we look ahead, I want to share with you the job announcement below.  We plan to begin interviewing this month, and look forward to having a successor in place by the end of the year or the beginning of 2014. 

With all best wishes,

Emily Ballew Neff
President
AAMC