MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) today announced the appointment of Mary Jane Drews as its new Director of External Affairs. Drews, who comes to the MIA from the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), where she was Vice President of Development, assumed her new role on June 20, 2011. Bringing with her more than 20 years of philanthropic experience, Drews will manage the museum’s departments of Development & Membership, Marketing & Communications, and Community Relations.

“The MIA is delighted to welcome Mary Jane Drews to our team,” said Kaywin Feldman, MIA Director and President. “She brings a breadth and depth of knowledge and experience from the world of cultural nonprofits and museums, which will be of enormous value to the MIA. We look forward to working with her to help advance the MIA’s mission in the coming years.”

“This is an exciting time to be joining the MIA and to encourage the public to come and be a part of the meaningful and dynamic work we’re doing,” Mary Jane Drews said. “Over the past two decades of working with non-profit arts organizations, I’ve seen firsthand the increased civic roles art organizations play in our communities. I look forward to being a part of the MIA as it continues to innovate public programming, produce important scholarship, and mount thought-provoking exhibitions.”

At the AIC, Drews fielded the $412 million campaign for the new Modern Wing, which opened in May 2009, and related projects, and was responsible for all aspects of fund-raising, which included operations, sponsorship, exhibition and accession funding, and membership.

Prior to the AIC, Drews was Director of Development at the Ravinia Festival, in Highland Park, Illinois, and at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, where she was instrumental in building up its development office from a two-person team to a 20-person staff that undertook annual and capital campaign fund-raising. She earned a B.A. and an M.A. in Communications from Indiana University, Bloomington.