The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles introduced two senior management appointments at the moment: Michael Wellen might be chief curator, and Regan Pro might be chief of studying, engagement, and analysis, a newly created function. Wellen begins on the museum on April 6, whereas Professional will begin on March 2.
The chief curatorship on the Hammer, which oversees the museum’s modern artwork exhibitions and assortment, publications, and registrar and preparator groups, has been vacant since 2023, when Connie Butler departed the museum to function the director of MoMA PS1 in New York. The brand new studying, engagement, and analysis function will put the Hammer’s public programming, neighborhood partnerships, and academic initiatives beneath one division.
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“Filling these two positions has actually my high precedence since arriving in the beginning of final 12 months,” Hammer director Zoë Ryan advised ARTnews in a telephone interview, noting that she spent that interval “attending to know the establishment to grasp what was wanted from these two positions.”
The 2 roles type the museum’s management, alongside Ryan as director and Naoko Takahatake, the director and chief curator of the Grunwald Heart for the Graphic Arts, which is housed on the Hammer. In filling the positions, Ryan was targeted on how “all three would work collectively in synergy with each other,” she mentioned.
Throughout this introductory interval, Ryan mentioned she would ask individuals what made the Hammer particular. Usually, they’d reply that it was each their influential exhibition program, which incorporates the Made in L.A. biennial and canon-shifting exhibitions like “Now Dig This!” and “Radical Ladies,” and “they’d shortly comply with up with how unbelievable the general public program is on the Hammer,” Ryan mentioned. “One of many issues that struck me once I got here to the hammer was the deep, significant work, completely rooted in Los Angeles and the area, that the general public applications staff was creating.”
Ryan mentioned that the creation of this new function and division is aimed to deliver collectively two groups so “they’ll work extra synergistically” and with an “expanded purview. The aim, she mentioned, is to search out “what we will contribute to the sector that’s completely different from some other establishment,” describing the strategy as “each mental and hands-on.”
Professional was most lately deputy director of public applications and social influence on the forthcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Artwork in Los Angeles, which is scheduled to open subsequent 12 months. Professional was laid off from her place on the Lucas final Might as a part of an total restructuring of the museum that primarily impacted its schooling groups. Previous to her function on the Lucas, she had been the deputy director of schooling and public engagement on the Seattle Artwork Museum.
“Regan brings an unbelievable sensitivity, pleasure, and an openness to exploration,” Ryan mentioned. “She has a constant file of growing applications that emphasize social influence, and equitable entry to the humanities and schooling. These are core values of the Hammer.”
Wellen, who’s specialist on fashionable and modern Latin American artwork, involves the Hammer from Tate Trendy, the place he’s senior curator of worldwide artwork. He’s presently organizing a significant retrospective of Ana Mendieta, which can open on the museum in July. He additionally labored on Tate Trendy exhibits for Takis, Lubiana Himid, and Philip Guston.
He beforehand led Tate’s Latin American Acquisitions committee. Previous to becoming a member of Tate in 2016, Wellen was assistant curator of Latin American and Latino artwork on the Museum of Wonderful Arts, Houston. He accomplished the Heart for Curatorial Management Fellowship in 2024.
“Michael brings this preferrred combine the place he actually is aware of LA properly—and he’s excited to get to comprehend it much more—however on the similar time, his place at Tate Trendy has given him this nice worldwide perspective and information of the scene,” Ryan mentioned. “He’s somebody who cares about being experimental and what which means for a spot just like the Hammer.”
