NORFOLK, VA.- The Barry Art Museum's executive director, Jutta-Annette Page, has announced her retirement effective Oct. 1.
Page, an internationally renowned expert in glass sculpture and decorative arts, has had an illustrious career of more than 27 years working in top museums. The highly sought-after curator became the Barry Art Museum's inaugural executive director in March 2017.
The 24,000-square-foot museum was made possible by a donation of funds and art valued at $37 million from Richard and Carolyn Barry – the largest gift in Old Dominion University's history.
"Jutta was instrumental in transitioning Richard and Carolyn Barry's art collection from private to public and in establishing the museum as an interdisciplinary educational resource,” President John R. Broderick said. The collection has significant holdings in glass sculpture, modernist painting and historic dolls."
"We regard Jutta Page as an initial co-founder of the Barry Art Museum," the Barrys said. "She was here from the beginning, putting in place many of the essential building blocks. Her knowledge and experience were invaluable in those early days."
Under Page's guidance, the museum, which opened in 2018, has enjoyed national acclaim and joined professional organizations, such as the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries. As a result, the new museum was also invited to become a member of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Statewide Partnership Program.
"Without Dr. Page's consummate professionalism and practiced eye, the Barry Art Museum would not be the stunning cultural asset to the Old Dominion University campus that it is today," said Robert Wojtowicz, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School.
"Her vision has been wide-ranging, and, in a relatively short time, she has established strong ties with a variety of academic disciplines, as well as the community at large."
Prior to her arrival in Norfolk, Page spent nearly three decades working in institutions specializing in glass sculpture and decorative arts.
She was senior curator of Glass and Decorative Arts at the Toledo Museum of Art from 2003-2017. In 2006, she was responsible for the reinstallation of over 5,000 works of glass art from antiquity to the present day in the museum's Glass Pavilion.
Previously, Page spent a decade serving as the curator of European glass at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y.
Page is the past president of the Glass Art Society, which gave her its Lifetime Membership Award in 2016. She has served as president of the International Council of Museums' Glass Committee and on the advisory board for the Creative Glass Center of America at Wheaton Arts in Millville, N.J.
Page holds a Ph.D. and a master's degree in the history of art and architecture from Brown University, a Master of Arts in Education in jewelry, metalsmithing and industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design and an M.A. and a B.A. in visual communication and art from Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen in Germany.
In her retirement, she hopes to add to her "shelf of publications" with continued research and writing.
"We will sorely miss Jutta and wish her good luck and happiness in her well-deserved retirement," the Barrys said.
