For Immediate Release
April 11, 2005

Media Contacts:
Gabriel Riera: 305.375.1706
griera@miamidade.gov

• Miami Art Museum Director Suzanne Delehanty (305-375-1701
• MAM Board of Trustees Chair Aaron Podhurst(305-358-2800)

MAM Director Announces She Will Step Down At End Of Year

Suzanne Delehanty, director of the Miami Art Museum for the past decade, announced today to the museum’s board of trustees that she will step down at the end of this year.

“We have come a long distance at MAM,” said board chair Aaron Podhurst, “and Suzanne has led the charge. She has been simply superb.”

“I count myself fortunate beyond measure to have been the director here who has guided this transformation,” said Delehanty, 61. “This is an extraordinary community, and these have been very special years in my life and career. I see myself as a catalyst and foundation-builder, and I have accomplished everything I have ever dreamed of accomplishing at MAM. Now I want to begin the next chapter in my career, and return to doing what I love the most – getting organizations up and running and working directly with art, artists and communities. For MAM’s plans at Bicentennial Park, January 2006 is a very good point for the changing of the guard.”

During these past 10 years, the museum:

• Has grown from the former Center for the Fine Arts, dedicated to traveling exhibitions, to become the Miami Art Museum of Miami-Dade with the beginnings of an important collection and among the most ambitious special-exhibition programs in the country.
• Collected more than 250 objects, worth nearly $10 million.
• Started an art library, which now numbers more than 4,200 volumes.
• Agreed, in an extensive community process, to focus on international art of the 20 th and 21 st centuries and reflecting Miami’s distinct populations and place in the Americas.
• Has built the largest art museum county in Miami-Dade County, serving more than more than 50,000 schoolchildren a year.
• Secured a waterfront location for a free-standing building and sculpture park. Thanks to the passage last November of a countywide general obligation bond issue, the Miami Art Museum will receive $100 million to be matched by at least another $75 million in private sector contributions. MAM’s next home will be more than 125,000 square feet, compared to the present 36,000 square feet. On the same 29 acres – most of which will remain green space – will be the new home for the Miami Museum of Science and Planetarium, with a wing for the Historical Museum of Southern Florida.

Delehanty was the director of three art museums, beginning in 1971, before she came to Miami: Institute of Contemporary Art of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the Neuberger Museum at the State University of New York at Purchase, and the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston.

“We will hate to lose her at any point,” Chairman Podhurst said, “but she will leave this place in strong shape.” He mentioned a fully balanced budget; the creation of the MAM Leadership Fund; a growing membership and attendance, and strong exhibitions already committed over the next few years, including Ana Mendieta, Lorna Simpson, Sol LeWitt and Rufino Tamayo as well as the launch of MAM-curated exhibitions and publications on Vik Muniz and Wifredo Lam. Both exhibitions will tour nationally.

Delehanty has served as the point person on planning for the museum’s new home. That has included her up-front leadership in the passage of the bond issue – the museums portion of which passed with almost two-thirds of the vote. A project management team will be announced shortly.

Podhurst said a search committee for her successor would be named shortly.“ She has built a very strong foundation for the future,” he said, “and that as well as MAM’s vision for a new home will make this a very attractive place to the next director.”

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