BREAKING -- Parrish Art Museum Names Kelly Taxter As New Director of the Museum / Feb 4, 2021

KELLY TAXTER NAMED NEW DIRECTOR

OF THE PARRISH ART MUSEUM

KELLY TAXTER NAMED NEW DIRECTOR OF THE PARRISH ART MUSEUM

Posted February 4, 2021 — On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I am delighted to announce that Kelly Taxter will be the next director of the Parrish Art Museum. Kelly comes to the Parrish from the Jewish Museum in New York City where she was the Barnett and Annalee Newman Curator of Contemporary Art. She assumes her new role on March 22, 2021, joining a rising class of new, influential female museum leaders around the country.

After a broad search from a large pool of diverse candidates, we decided that Kelly’s depth of experience in the contemporary art world and at the Jewish Museum, where tradition melds with innovation, will enable her to infuse the Parrish with a new vitality and with a fresh perspective on the role that the Parrish can play in our complex community. We look forward to her bold vision, her strong leadership and to turning the page to a new and exciting chapter in the history of the Parrish Art Museum. Kelly will benefit from the legacy of the strong directors she succeeds and whose contributions laid the foundation for the Museum’s next phase of excellence.

“I am honored to have been selected as the next director of the Parrish Art Museum,” said Kelly Taxter. “It is a great privilege to lead the institution at this critical moment of change. I look forward to joining the Parrish board and team in welcoming visitors from all backgrounds to our unparalleled building, and sharing exhibitions and collection presentations that reflect not only the artistic history of the East End, but also the bright future of the Museum.”

Kelly joined the Jewish Museum in 2013 and held the Museum’s first endowed and named contemporary curator position. While at the Jewish Museum, she organized major surveys of Marc Camille Chaimowicz and Rachel Feinstein, and will serve as guest curator for the first U.S. survey of filmmaker Jonas Mekas in 2022; she led commissions, projects, and exhibitions with Math Bass, Eliza Douglas, Alex Israel, Eva LeWitt, Peter Shire, Laurie Simmons, Valeska Soares, Vivan Suter, and Lawrence Weiner, among others; and co-curated an exhibition on Isaac Mizrahi and thematic group exhibitions including Take Me (I’m Yours) and Unorthodox.

Please join the board and staff in welcoming Kelly to the Parrish community!

All my best,

Mary Frank
President and Co-Chair
of the Board of Trustees