ROANOKE, Va.—David Mickenberg has been named executive director of the Taubman Museum of Art, a position he will assume immediately, reports ArtDaily. Mickenberg joins the Taubman from the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, where he served as both a museum director and a senior lecturer at the school. While at the Davis Museum, Mickenberg was instrumental in greatly increasing attendance by both students and the community as a whole, and helped to develop a curatorial exchange program with the Louvre. Before joining Wellesley, Mickenberg held a similar position at Northwestern University and also served as executive director at the Oklahoma Museum of Art.

PHILADELPHIA—After 28 years in the post, Woodmere Art Museum director Michael Schantz will step down on December 31, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. When he joined the museum in 1981, Schantz was one of only two employees; now the museum has 11 full-time workers and is undergoing an expansion. The chance to be in that position again — starting up an institution and putting it all together — is the reason for Schantz’s departure, though is it currently unclear where he will go next. Schantz holds a doctorate from the University of California at Los Angeles, and began his career at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

SAN FRANCISCO—Stephanie Hanor has been named director of the Mills College Art Museum in San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Hanor comes from the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, where she served as a curator for eight years before recently becoming a department head. Hanor, who holds degrees in art history from the University of Minnesota, Tulane University, and the University of Texas, will also teach museum studies at Mills College.

TOLEDO, Ohio—Rod Bigelow will serve as interim director of the Toledo Museum of Art during the six- to 12-month search for a permanent replacement for Don Bacigalupi, who is leaving to head up the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas, ToledoOnTheMove.com reports. Bigelow joined the Toledo Museum in 2008, and has served as its chief operating officer since.

Farewells
DUBLIN—Welsh sculptor Barry Flanagan died on August 31 at the age of 68, the Irish Times reports. Best known for his large-scale bronzes depicting rabbits, Flanagan knew from age 17 that he would make his life as a sculptor and actively pursued the medium, studying art at Birmingham College of Art and St. Martin’s School of Art, where he later taught. In the late 1970s, he began sculpting animals, in particular rabbits, a practice that would become his trademark and help him to gain international recognition. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Arts and was known to generously donate to his favorite causes. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he became an Irish citizen in 2001 and spent the later years of his life living and working in Dublin.

LONDON—British painter and World War II veteran Frederick Gore died on August 31, the Telegraph reports. He was 95 years old. Gore dedicated his life to both art and education, as a student at Trinity College, the Westminster School of Art, and the Slade School of Fine Art, and later as a teacher for over 30 years, most notably at St. Martin’s School of Art, where he served as head of painting and vice principal. He also exhibited continuously throughout his life both in solo shows and as a staple at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. Gore further combined his two loves in writing instructional books such as Abstract Art, published in 1956, and Painting, Some Basic Principles, in 1965.

PARIS—Biographer and memoirist James Lord, who counted among his subjects and close friends artists such as Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti, died of a heart attack at his home in Paris on August 30, reports the New York Times. He was 86 years old. Born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, Lord left for Europe after enlisting in the Army as a result of the attack on Pearl Harbor, having little interest in college. While living abroad, Lord cultivated relationships with a number of artists and public figures, whom he immortalized in his works, including Giacometti: A Biography, in 1985, and Picasso and Dora: A Personal Memoir, about the artist and his mistress, in 1993. He also published a number of autobiographical works, the last of which is scheduled for release in June 2010.