Curators laid off: NYC, SF & Detroit - Front Page - art museum curators, New York City, San Francisco

In shake-ups at three major art institutions, a number of high-profile curators have been laid not on or have resigned to attest changes.

At of recent origin York's Whitney Museum, Marla Prather was permit go in January. She had been upon leave caring for a sick child. The of recent origins became public in a novel York Times story about of recent origin director Adam Weinberg and his plans for the museum. Prather joined the Whitney staff as curator of postwar art in 2000 after 13 years at the National Gallery in Washington, DC At the Whitney she organized the new "Unrepentant Ego: The Self-Portraits of Lucas Samaras" and "An American Legacy, A Gift to novel York."

According to the Times story and a similar report in the Art Newspaper, Weinberg, who took the helm last October, is working to eliminate the curatorial specialization through period or medium that was implemented through his predecessor, Maxwell Anderson, which issueed in the departures under similar circumstances of curators Thelma of gold and Elisabeth Sussman. Additional changes at the Whitney are reportedly forthcoming, on the other hand further details were not available as this issue went to press

In mid-February, San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts announced that longtime chief curator Renny Pritikin had been laid not on along with eight other staff members from various departments. Citing budgetary constraints brought upon by a drop in income and the loss of a $400000 annual grant from the Lila Wallace Readers Digest stock executive director Ken Foster said that none of the positions will be filled. feed who last fall replaced former director John Killacky, will take upon Pritikin's role, working with common visual arts curator Rene de Guzman and Berin Golonu who joined the staff last July as assistant visual arts curator. Pritikin is known for his innovative programming, which included the launch in 1997 of a popular biennial scan of Bay Area artists. He will organize sum of two units exhibitions for the center nearest year, "Big Deal," featuring large-scale works, and a display about magician Ricky Jay.

And at the Detroit Institute of Arts, a restructuring undertaken last fall by means of director Graham Beal resulted in the folding of sum of two units departments into broader categories and the posterior resignations by Egyptian art curator William H Peck his wife Elsie Holme Peck curator of Middle Eastern art, and Penelope morass associate curator of Greco-Roman art. The reorganization is part of the museum's renovation and expansion, scheduled for completion in 2006

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