Maxwell Anderson In as Dallas Museum of Art Director

Dr. Maxwell L. Anderson has been appointed as Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art. He leaves his job as Melvin & Bren Simon Director and CEO of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), and succeeds DMA’s former director, Bonnie Pitman. Anderson will assume his new job at the DMA on January 9, 2012.

Anderson has been crediting with raising $30 million for the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s endowment. Digital media has been a big part of the IMA program: during Anderson’s tenure, the IMA launched innovative web-based tools to engage the public, such as a dedicated video channel for art and artists known as ArtBabble, as well as a Dashboard of real-time statistics and a deaccessioning database to promote transparency on its website.

In June 2010, the IMA opened 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, featuring ongoing site-specific commissions. Anderson also led the museum’s acquisition and renovation of Eero Saarinen’s Miller House (1957), an iconic residence in Columbus, Indiana, which opened to the public in May 2011.

The IMA was the commissioning institution for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale, bringing performance art to the U.S. Pavilion for the first time in its history by presenting new work by artists Allora & Calzadilla.

The museum launched IMA Lab in 2010, a consulting arm utilizing the IMA’s innovative approach to technology to promote smart, industry-specific solutions and to create and disseminate open-source tools for use across the museum field. In its first year, IMA Labs generated over $500,000 in revenue to support museum programming.