DENVER, COLORADO.- The Denver Art Museum announced today a new director for the Institute of Western American Art (IWAA). Peter H. Hassrick, a leading scholar in the field of Western American art and long-time director of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, will lead the Institute beginning in mid-June. With more than 35 years of experience in the field, Hassrick brings a depth of knowledge and perspective that will further develop this collection into a major highlight for the region.

Joan Carpenter Troccoli, former director and curator of the Institute, will become the senior scholar in the department to focus on writing and curatorial duties associated with exhibitions and publications. Troccoli was instrumental in the formation of the IWAA and will continue to be actively involved in the department. With less administrative responsibility, Troccoli will have the ability to focus on furthering the Institute’s scholarly prestige. Hassrick and Troccoli are top authorities in the field of Western American art, and their combined expertise further establishes the Denver Art Museum’s position as a leader in this area.

Founded in 2001, following the successful exhibition Painters and the American West from the esteemed Anschutz collection and a major donation of more than 700 Western American objects from the Harmsen family, the IWAA has researched and refined the Museum's existing collections, mounted exhibitions including 2002’s West Point/Points West: A Celebration of Western Expeditionary Art, and published two volumes of an ongoing monograph series titled Western Passages.

The Western American collection will be featured prominently in the new Hamilton Building expansion of the Denver Art Museum, slated to open in fall 2006. This collection will be housed on the second floor of the Daniel Libeskind-designed building, which will serve as the major thoroughfare between the two museum buildings.

“The Denver Art Museum has made great strides to strengthen and exhibit the Western American collection and we look forward to continued growth and presence in the new Museum complex,” said Museum director Lewis Sharp. “Peter Hassrick is one of the most recognized scholars in this field and his leadership, along with Joan Troccoli’s expertise, will undoubtedly produce great things for the Museum and the field.”

For the last several years, Hassrick has focused his career on writing and acting as an independent American art scholar who focuses on the American West. Living in Cody, Wyoming, he has served a national and international constituency of museums as a guest curator. He is the Founding Director Emeritus of the Charles M. Russell Center for the Study of Art of the American West at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. He was also the founding Director of The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, leading it from inception to opening in 16 months. For 20 years prior to that, Hassrick served as the Director of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody. Under his guidance, the Historical Center gained accreditation by the American Association of Museums and grew dynamically in both physical and fiscal dimensions to become the largest museum of art and history between Minneapolis and San Francisco.

Hassrick has written extensively on a variety of western American artists, including Alfred Jacob Miller, George Catlin, William Ranney, Charles Russell, Frederic Remington, Alexander Phimister Proctor, Solon Borglum and Georgia O'Keeffe. His books and articles have also treated broad themes related to art of the West such as the landscape painters in the Rocky Mountains, the genre and history traditions in western painting and recently, the history of Yellowstone National Park, its artists and the aesthetic conservation movement. He is the reigning national authority on Frederic Remington and a member of the Charles Russell catalogue raisonne team.

Hassrick was born in Philadelphia and raised in Denver. He earned a B.A. in History from the University of Colorado and a M.A. in Art History from the University of Denver, with a concentration in 19th-century and early 20th-century American art. Hassrick's devotion to the history and art of the American West has inspired numerous exhibitions, lectures and publications that he has produced throughout his career.