After nearly three years as director of our Museum of Art, Kevin Salatino will be returning to the West Coast this summer to become the Hannah and Russel Kully Director of Art Collections at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California.

This is a terrific opportunity for Kevin, who has done much to advance the mission and raise the visibility of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art since he arrived here from California in 2009. The art world has clearly taken note of these accomplishments, which include last year’s groundbreaking exhibition, “Edward Hopper’s Maine,” and the upcoming exhibition of works by William Wegman. The Hopper exhibition brought more than 46,000 people to campus, pumped many dollars into the Midcoast economy, and truly put our newly-renovated Museum on the map. We expect similar great things from the Wegman exhibition, which Kevin has agreed to launch before assuming his new position at the Huntington in July.

Beyond these signature events, Kevin has helped realize the potential of the major renovation and expansion of our Museum in 2007 by closely integrating studies of the collections across the curriculum and mounting exhibitions of international renown. Among these was an important collaboration with the Yale University Art Gallery, “Methods of Modernsim,” sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; a major show of medieval alabasters from the Victoria and Albert Museum connected creatively to an exhibition of R. Crumb’s “Genesis”; and the recent exhibition of Chinese Bronzes, “Along the Yangzi River.” Under Kevin’s direction, the Museum has also engaged departments across the College in inventive use of the collections in teaching, while an active Student Museum Advisory Council has served as a creative liaison to the student body at large.

Sincerely,

Barry Mills