San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Names New Director

One year following the resignation of its longtime chief, Neal Benezra, the San Francisco Museum of Modern-day Artwork on Wednesday declared his successor, Christopher Bedford, the director of the Baltimore Museum of Artwork.

Bedford, who will get started in June, has championed range via acquisitions to the selection and wage increases for the duration of his tenure in Baltimore. He created the controversial choice in 2020 to provide three significant operates to diversify its assortment, but reversed himself in reaction to issues from former Baltimore Museum trustees and local community customers. In 2019, he announced that for a calendar year, the museum would only obtain work by women of all ages artists.

He will come to SFMOMA at a time when the institution is healing from the tough departure of its prime curator, Gary Garrels, in 2020 immediately after he was accused of racism. Benezra publicly apologized and the museum has given that founded a “Core Team” and carried out a strategic approach focused on variety, fairness and inclusion.

“The SFMOMA career description struck a key chord, notably in its need for values-primarily based management, determination to systemic improve and aspirations for diversity, fairness and inclusion,” Bedford, 44, stated in an e mail.

“These are deeply shared ideas and commitments of my individual,” he included. “I are unable to wait around to start.”

In a letter to the staff outlining its “unanimous” selection of Bedford, the look for committee explained it located his keep track of record all-around variety “exceptional,” and that this place “has been at the core of Chris’ work, informing all endeavors and driving systemic alter throughout a museum’s lifestyle and output.”

The look for committee’s letter praised Bedford’s function as a curator on jobs this kind of as Mark Bradford’s U.S. Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale and Mickalene Thomas’s 2019 fee for the Baltimore Museum, which remodeled the museum’s two-tale East Foyer into a residing room for the city, filled with the perform of local artists. He also supported the big Joan Mitchell retrospective co-arranged by the BMA and SFMOMA.

The new job is a phase up for Bedford, who until now has operate a museum with an once-a-year spending budget, in 2021, of $16.9 million and a staff members of 182. Its endowment, as of Dec. 31, was $197.6 million it has no deficit.

The San Francisco Museum of Present day Artwork has a price range of $53.4 million, a staff of 360 and an endowment of $500 million it far too has no deficit, according to a spokesperson.

At a time when museums all more than the nation are hoping to incorporate far more inclusivity into their programming, employing and management, the appointment of Bedford, a white male, is likely to fulfill with some criticism.

But Pamela J. Joyner, a member of SFMOMA’s board who led the research committee with the museum’s president, Diana L. Nelson, mentioned she felt strongly that Bedford was the appropriate man or woman for the work.

“Chris has completed the really hard function and has a demonstrated history of good results in producing a much more inclusive art record,” Joyner claimed in an e-mail message. “Leveling the participating in area takes a boldness for which he is regarded.”

“Though he is not a girl or a human being of shade, and I have an understanding of how that may possibly be an unforeseen outcome,” additional Joyner, who is herself Black, “I think he will materially promote the visibility and finest desire of all those teams primarily based on his previous performance.”

Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Basis, who has led the cost on range problems, stated he felt snug with the assortment of Bedford. “While I’m upset that a varied candidate wasn’t picked out,” Walker mentioned in a telephone interview, “no museum chief is more fully commited to diversity than Chris Bedford.”

A human being near to the job search who spoke on problem of anonymity since they were being not approved to expose its aspects, said that the SFMOMA place was not an straightforward offer to candidates, offered San Francisco’s comparatively small-profile modern artwork scene and the tepid fascination in artwork patronage among Silicon Valley moguls. The Gagosian gallery not too long ago closed in San Francisco).

Born in Scotland and elevated in the United States and England, Bedford obtained his bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College or university and his master’s in art history and museum studies through the joint program at Circumstance Western Reserve College and the Cleveland Museum of Artwork.

He also researched in the doctoral programs in art background at the College of Southern California and at the Courtauld Institute of Art at the College of London. Right before coming to Baltimore in 2016, Bedford served as director of the Rose Artwork Museum at Brandeis University, and in advance of that, held curatorial positions at the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio Condition College, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum.

In Baltimore, Bedford has developed a name as a disrupter, such as when he introduced his yearlong determination to only receive work by female artists.

“You really don’t just obtain a person painting by a feminine artist of color and dangle it on the wall subsequent to a painting by Mark Rothko,” Bedford reported at the time. “To rectify generations of imbalance, you have to do a little something radical.”

Some saw the move as showmanship, arguing that female artists must be obtained by museums on a regular foundation, as a make a difference of system.

Likewise, a lot of noticed Bedford’s determination to promote functions by Brice Marden, Clyfford Nevertheless and Andy Warhol at auction — to fund acquisitions of artwork by people today of color and staff members-large income boosts — as a foolhardy shift to rating politically accurate points. Even though the museum experienced beforehand deaccessioned functions, in this situation, “Baltimore was promoting masterpieces,” Arnold Lehman, a previous director of both of those the Baltimore museum and the Brooklyn Museum, stated at the time.

How Bedford’s appointment will go more than with SFMOMA’s employees users stays to be witnessed. Garrels, the main curator, was noticed by many there as an objectionable representative of the position quo soon after he was reported to have said in a Zoom conference, “Don’t be concerned, we will surely continue to carry on to accumulate white artists.” Amid the uproar that adopted — and regardless of responding that his remarks ended up “a minimal bit skewed” — Garrels resigned soon thereafter.

Bedford claimed he designs to learn from SFMOMA’s personnel and “to just take time to fully grasp the institution.”

“I know that I am not the man or woman that some may possibly have predicted or hoped for as the selection for SFMOMA’s new director,” Bedford stated. “I respect individuals views and am coming to the situation with fantastic humility.

“What I can say is that I have created the related values of diversity and equity the core of my perform over the earlier 15 a long time, from assortment-building to exhibition-earning, staff members to board development and neighborhood engagement,” he additional. “I sense strongly about bringing those people values and convictions to my new role at SFMOMA. This features ensuring that a wide variety of voices are at the table.”