Tedeschi Named Next Art Museums Director

After recently undergoing dramatic building renovations, the Harvard Art Museums will soon have new leadership as well, with Martha Tedeschi set to become the next director of the Museums in July.

Tedeschi—whose appointment the University announced Wednesday—comes to Cambridge by way of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she now works as the Deputy Director for Art and Research. She will succeed Thomas W. Lentz, who announced his departure from the post last year less than three months after the reopening of the renovated museums.

Students gathered in November of 2014 for the exclusive opening of the renovated Fogg Museum. The event included a live D.J., non-alcoholic refreshments, and a student dance performance. By Anneli L. Tostar

“The Harvard Art Museums have been brilliantly reimagined by the recent renovation and I am exhilarated at the prospect of leading them at this moment to realize their enormous potential,” Tedeschi said in a statement.

A graduate of Brown University with a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, Tedeschi specializes in British and American art, with particular expertise in Early Modern European printmaking.

In the statement, University President Drew G. Faust said she looks forward to Tedeschi’s tenure.

“The arts are essential to the University’s highest purposes, and I look forward to the ways in which they will continue to flourish under her direction,” Faust said.

In November 2014, the Art Museums reopened after six years and $250 million worth of reconstruction and renovation. The construction combined the Fogg Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum into a single complex, with the staff of all three museums working together for the first time to fill the 50 galleries.

University Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 also lauded Tedeschi in a statement.

“The Harvard Art Museums are among the nation’s largest and most important art collections and are also a critical resource for research, teaching, and learning at Harvard,” Garber said. “Martha’s passion for teaching students across all disciplines and experience in training the next generation of scholars, curators, and conservators will enable her to advance the Museums’ academic and cultural missions.”

The Museums’ combined collections boast around 250,000 pieces from a myriad of historical time periods, geographic regions, and artistic disciplines.

—Staff writer Andrew M. Duehren can be reached at andy.duehren@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @aduehren.

—Staff writer Daphne C. Thompson can be reached at daphne.thompson@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @daphnectho.