CHICAGO, IL.- The Art Institute of Chicago announced the appointment of Martha Tedeschi as the museum's new Deputy Director for Art and Research , effective immediately. In this newly created position, Tedeschi will be responsible for the management of the departments most closely related to the museum's commitment to research and scholarship: the conservation department, which performs scientific analyses of paintings and sculpture as well as preserves the physical integrity of works of art in the museum's permanent collection; the publications department, which publishes approximately ten extensive exhibition and permanent collection catalogues every year; and the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, one of the most outstanding art and architecture libraries in the United States and a major resource for scholars from around the world. Additionally, Tedeschi will assist the museum's eleven curatorial departments with their day-to-day activities and serve a primary role in the museum's long-range initiatives, including strategic planning and digital publishing of the permanent collection.

"While the Art Institute has not had a deputy director for more than ten years, the need for this position has become increasingly clear to me as the museum's ambitions grow ever more sophisticated and complex," said Douglas Druick, President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the museum. "Of course we will continue to conduct scholarly research and plan exhibitions, but we must also ensure that our stewardship of the permanent collection remain as progressive and thorough as possible. Martha's unique experience and abilities--as a scholar, curator, and administrator--perfectly position her for this new role, and I look forward to working closely with her in the coming years to chart the course of the museum."

Tedeschi is currently the Prince Trust Curator in the Department of Prints and Drawings. Since March 2012, she has also been serving as Director's Special Liaison for the Long Range Plan. She began her career at the Art Institute of Chicago as an NEA Intern in 1982 and became a full curator in 1999. A specialist in British and American art, Tedeschi also has a strong interest in the history of printmaking in early modern Europe and has published extensively in scholarly journals and catalogues on print and drawing techniques and materials. She is the general editor and co-author of the two-volume catalogue raisonné The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler (1998), which received the prestigious George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award from the Art Libraries Society of North America. She was the organizing curator of the popular and groundbreaking exhibitions Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light (2008) and John Marin's Watercolors: A Medium for Modernism (2011). Tedeschi is the director of the Art Institute's Print and Drawing Club and leads the nationally respected Internship Program in Prints and Drawings. An active member of the Association of Art Museum Curators, the College Art Association, and other professional organizations, Tedeschi is a former chair of the Art Institute of Chicago's Curators Forum, current President of the Print Council of America (2009-2013), and a 2012 Fellow of the Center for Curatorial Leadership. She received her B.A. magna cum laude from Brown University, her M.A. from the University of Michigan, and her Ph.D. from Northwestern University.