WELLESLEY, MASS.- Wellesley College President Paula Johnson and Provost Courtney Coile today announced the appointment of Dina Deitsch as the new Ruth Gordon Shapiro ’37 Director of the Davis Museum.

Currently director and chief curator of Tufts University Art Galleries, Deitsch will begin work at Wellesley in mid-July.

“An engaging leader, Dina Deitsch has a dynamic vision for centering the Davis at the core of our liberal arts program,” Johnson and Coile wrote in announcing the appointment. “Her experience in academic museum settings, strong connections to the Boston arts community, and deep expertise in contemporary art make her the ideal leader to guide the Davis Museum into its next chapter.”

At Tufts, Deitsch has led major organizational change, built a responsive and energetic program of exhibitions and events, and developed relationships with campus partners to increase the visibility of the arts. She joined the university in 2017, overseeing a complex merger of the university’s art gallery with the long-standing Exhibitions Department at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston after Tufts acquired the art school. As the inaugural director of the merged gallery system, Deitsch has overseen an exhibition program across the two campuses as well as the university’s permanent art collection and a public art program.

Deitsch’s approach has been described as collaborative and connective, linking artists, ideas, and audiences to create more equitable, vibrant spaces. She has prioritized community involvement in commission and acquisition decisions, and she engaged students in a “datathon” to analyze the collection’s demographic data. As a curator, she has partnered with faculty to develop exhibitions of contemporary artists that connect to the curriculum and challenge conventions.

Deitsch has worked at Boston area art organizations for nearly two decades. Prior to joining Tufts, she was the John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Interim Director at Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts and curator of contemporary art at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Mass. She has taught at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

“I am deeply honored to join the Wellesley College community as the next leader of the Davis Museum,” Deitsch said. “The College and museum have a rich and storied history at the vanguard of art historical teaching and as longtime champions of arts education and artists. At a moment when arts and humanities education are increasingly vital to our world, it is thrilling and humbling to join an institution dedicated to that very mission since its inception.”

Deitsch earned her B.A. at the Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University. She holds an M.A. in the history of art from Williams College and completed additional graduate work at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, specializing at both schools in modern and contemporary American and European art.