With the departure of Emily Mahon, our Senior Director of Education, we initiated a nation-wide search for her replacement. Over a period of almost five months, we reviewed over 100 applications and interviewed candidates from as far away as Chicago, Virginia, and Northern California. We set very high standards for ourselves, and we were having trouble finding just the right fit. During the search process, it became clear that almost all of our Educational programming was linked to our collections and depended on our Collections department for resources and advice. The solution to our search for leadership in Education suddenly became very clear.

We combined our Collections and Special Exhibits department with Programming and Education to form a single department of Programming and Collections under the very talented leadership of our new Vice President, Victoria Gerard; she has been with the Bowers for over seven years and has already accomplished a great deal. Victoria, along with Mark Bustamante, is setting us on a very exciting path with the recent opening of Dimensions of Form: Tamayo and Mixografia, and upcoming partnerships with The Walt Disney Archives, Quest for the Nile with the Royal Geographical Society, and yes, the return of Guo Pei in February, 2021. I’m personally very excited with the great team that has come together across the full spectrum of the museum’s departments.

Best wishes,

Peter C. Keller, Ph.D