TAMPA, FL.- The Board of Trustees of the Tampa Museum of Art announce Michael Tomor, PhD, of El Paso, Texas, as its new executive director effective April 15, 2015.

Tampa Museum of Art Board President Debra Williams McDaniel stated, “The Board is impressed with Michael’s team-building management style and successful strategic planning experience, which is a perfect fit for our institution at this time. He has developed an outstanding record in fundraising and cultivation of creative collaborative relationships with other cultural and community institutions with a special focus on inclusiveness. We look forward with great anticipation to working with him.”

The Board Executive Search Committee unanimously selected Tomor from three finalists vetted from more than 60 candidates from around the country, with the leadership of board member and arts patron Penny Vinik who was appointed Executive Search Committee chair to spearhead the search process. Vinik stated, “I am grateful to all the members of the Search Committee for their hard work and dedication to the process. Michael is an exemplary museum professional, with a great passion for art and community building and we are all looking forward to working with him as he leads the museum into its next exciting chapter.”

“It is a great honor to be selected as the next director of the Tampa Museum of Art. The Board and staff are committed to the museum and its future role in the cultural landscape of the entire Tampa Bay region, and I’m thrilled to be part of that community leadership making all of this happen,” remarked Tomor.

Tomor, a 21-year museum professional, has directed the El Paso Museum of Art since 2006. As the director, Tomor managed a staff of 30 full time employees that maintains an annual commitment to over ten temporary exhibitions a year plus rotating permanent collections as well as a series of over a dozen on-going education programs, including a very active Museum studio art school program. With his team, he made new in-roads with regional community education partnerships. Most recently, new programs for patients suffering with Dementia and Alzheimer’s and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder were added to the standard annual program offerings and were launched in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association and Fort Bliss Army Base. Through a three year grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a museum visual art education program in partnership with AVANCE El Paso was launched for preschool age students to build the literacy skills needed to be competitive and reading ready by age five.

In 2014, Tomor also developed a two-year long visiting masterpiece series with the Guggenheim Museum of Art, the first partnership of its type for both institutions, featuring the works of Cézanne, Picasso, Kandinsky, Delaunay, Chagall and others. Over the past three years, Tomor has had great success in raising over three million in cash and pledges for the endowment and in the past nine years doubled the museum membership and tripled and stabilized annual exhibition and education sponsorships. He received a PhD in Art History in 1993 from Pennsylvania State University and is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors.

Seth D. Pevnick, PhD, the Tampa Museum of Art’s current Chief Curator and Richard E. Perry Curator of Greek and Roman Art, has been the day-to-day Acting Director as the Museum launched a search for a new leader.

Tomor was selected after a nationwide search led by executive search consultants Alison Ranney and Alexandra Corvin and their team of Koya Leadership Partners, a firm dedicated exclusively to serving clients in the nonprofit sector.