Seattle Art Blog - News, Discussion, and Events

Chosen to succeed Mimi Gates as the Illsley Ball  Nordstrom Director for the Seattle Art Museum is the Executive Director of the San Diego Museum of Art, Derrick Cartwright. Gates is retiring on June 30, 2009 after 15 years as the museum’s director, and Cartwright will take over in the fall of 2009.

According to Charlie Wright, chair of the search committee and SAM trustee, “We had an incredible pool of candidates but Derrick was clearly the right leader to leverage and build upon the remarkable foundation SAM has built under Mimi Gates’ leadership. He has the perfect combination of an accomplished track record and a bold vision for the future. I have no doubt that he will prove to be a great leader of SAM’s stellar team.”

Prior to his position at the San Diego Museum of Art, Cartwright was the director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College from 2001 to 2004 where he was instrumental in organizing several noteworthy exhibitions, including the critically acclaimed Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past, which traveled to the J. Paul Getty Museum. From 1998 to 2000, Cartwright directed the Musée d'Art Américain Giverny in France, where he developed and curated a variety of exhibitions featuring prominent American artists who studied or lived in France.