Williams College Museum of Art Finds a Director

SEATTLE and WILLIAMSTOWN - A few weeks ago, Artinfo.com posted news of just how many American museums over twenty are currently looking for new directors. One of those posts was filled today, at a museum that may at first glance seem relatively minor, but which has a major history and a stellar reputation.

Lisa Corrin has left the Seattle Art Museum to come on board as director of Williams College Museum of Art, which is located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, near such high-profile venues as the Clark Art Institute and MASS MoCA, which are also nestled in the idyllic Berkshires region. Corrin, who has a strong background in contemporary art, characterized her move to the Seattle Times as "a step up." (The Times leads with the bad news for Seattle that Corrin is departing while the museum is planning for a major expansion.)

The reason for this is not just that she moving into the position of director she was deputy director for art and curator of modern and contemporary art in Seattle for four years but it is surely also because Williams College, however small in size, has a history of launching careers.

As the Seattle Times points out, Michael Govan, director of DIA, was once there, and Thomas Krens put in time at Williams, as did the late, and widely praised MoMA curator Kurt Varnedoe.

Most recently, Williams' director Linda Shearer left last summer, having taken a job as director at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, which boasts an impressive new building by Pritzker Prize winning architect Zaha Hadid. Corrin came to Seattle from The Serpentine Gallery in London, a renowned venue for contemporary art, where she was chief curator from 1997 to 2001. There she showed such artists as Chris Ofili, William Kentridge and Mariko Mori.

In today's report on iberkshires.com, Corrin says at Williams she will look to "explore ways to expand the role of the museum in interdisplinary undergraduate education." She also characterized the museum as "a critical arena for discussion about works of art across time and across cultures that can lead to significant insights about our lives today. My goal is to use visual culture study at the museum to enable visitors to 'read' the world around them."

FOR FULL STORY CLICK: The Seattle Times: "Seattle Art Museum losing curator"

iBerkshires.com: "Williams College Museum of Art has a new director"