Courtesy photo
Heidi Zuckerman, who has been the CEO and director of the Aspen Art Museum for the past 14 years, will be leaving the museum when her contract ends Sept. 30, the AAM board of trustees said in a statement Friday.
Among a host of other accomplishments, Zuckerman led the museum through its capital and endowment campaign to build the 33,000-square-foot, $45 million facility, which opened in August 2014.
In the statement, both side thanked each other, but did not say what Zuckerman would be doing after she leaves the Aspen Art Museum.
“Together, we have made the AAM into the vibrant, thriving and globally facing international institution it is today,” Zuckerman said in the statement. “I believe, more than ever, that ‘Art Saves Lives,’ and I am excited to continue connecting people with art and artists in order to make lives better. I wish the AAM, and all those who engage with it, continuing and ever-growing success.”
When reached Friday evening, Zuckerman did not want to comment beyond what was in the statement.
Zuckerman was hired in July 2005 to replace Dean Sobel, and after she started she quickly changed the criteria for exhibitions.
She put the museum’s focus on three criteria: first-time U.S. solo museum exhibitions by significant emerging contemporary artists from around the globe; solo exhibitions by important or established contemporary artists that focus on new, unrecognized, or underappreciated aspects of their artistic output; and group exhibitions curated to address prescient or topical contemporary cultural, social or political subject matter.
“Heidi is a visionary director who has turned this museum into a global leader in contemporary art and we wish her the best in all her future plans,” board of trustees officials said in the statement.
The internationally recognized artists with whom she has worked recently in curating AAM exhibitions include Rashid Johnson (2019); John Armleder (2019); Gabriel Rico (2019); Cheryl Donegan (2018); Nate Lowman (2017); Wade Guyton/Peter Fischli/David Weiss (2017); Jack Pierson (2017); Adam McEwen (2017); Julian Schnabel (2016 to 2017); Ceal Floyer (2016); Gabriel Orozco (2016); and Alan Shields (2016).
The new museum was part of a $75 million capital and endowment campaign, and she lead a second phase that raised more than $8 million in endowment funding, according to the statement.
In July 2017, the museum was one of 10 national institutions to receive the National Medal for Museum and Library Services, which is the highest recognition awarded by the federal government to museums and libraries for service to their communities. The AAM was recognized for its educational outreach to underserved communities in the Roaring Fork Valley and the Western Slope.
The board of trustees said it will put together a search committee to look for Zuckerman’s replacement.