LINCOLN, MASS.- DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum announces that after a thorough search, the Board has unanimously selected John B. Ravenal to serve as the institution’s next Executive Director, effective January 2015. Ravenal is currently the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). He brings to deCordova extensive administrative and curatorial experience, having served as President of the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC), and having held curatorial positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and at the Wadsworth Atheneum, where he worked on the museum’s first showing of the Sol LeWitt collection.
The search committee, comprised of deCordova Trustees working in tandem with Phillips Oppenheim, notes: “We are confident that John will be an inspiring leader with the talent and prestige to bring deCordova to the next level of excellence and recognition.” Says deCordova Board Chair Gerry Frank: “The Board is thrilled to have a leader of John’s caliber at this time in deCordova’s history. John’s vision for the future of our institution coupled with his intelligence and creativity will be a great addition to the Boston arts community and the field of contemporary art.”
During the course of his 16-year tenure at VMFA, Ravenal has been responsible for implementing an impressive program of exhibitions, installations, and acquisitions, for which he is credited with exponentially expanding the museum’s audience for contemporary art. He is the sole curator of VMFA’s blockbuster Jasper Johns and Edvard Munch exhibition, opening in 2016 in partnership with the Munch Museum in Oslo, and he was instrumental in the creation of VMFA’s sculpture garden.
Ravenal expresses great enthusiasm about his transition to deCordova: “I’m very excited about deCordova’s ambitious plans to become one of the best sculpture parks in the United States. The grounds and facilities are wonderful and the staff and trustees are ideal. I look forward to expanding the reach of deCordova, which is already recognized as a New England gem.” Ravenal reflects that he plans to analyze the success of this expanded reach in a number of ways: “Success can be judged by the numbers, of course. But it’s also about the feeling around the Museum. Are people excited to be here? To bring their friends? Is there a good connection between the staff and the public? Is deCordova on people’s lips, all over town and beyond? One thing I’ve loved about VMFA is how it’s become a thriving social hub in all sorts of ways. I look forward to increasing this at deCordova.”
Ravenal attributes his professional museum successes to working collaboratively across the institution with education, development, marketing, and operational staff. Well-prepared to take the reins of deCordova, Ravenal will be tasked with furthering the institution’s landscape Master Plan, which includes a major restructuring of the Museum and 30-acre Sculpture Park. He is also charged with moving boldly forward with deCordova’s long-term Strategic Plan to become one of the nation’s leading Sculpture Parks.
After growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, and Washington, DC, Ravenal received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He earned his Master of Arts and Master of Philosophy in Art History from Columbia University. Ravenal has two college-aged children with his wife Virginia Pye, a novelist originally from Belmont, Massachusetts.
