LINCOLN, MASS.- DeCordova announced that Jennifer Klahn has joined deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum as Deputy Director for External Affairs. In this role, Klahn will be responsible for the growth and success of fundraising programs and the increased visibility of the Sculpture Park and Museum. Additionally, deCordova has appointed Sarah Montross to Curator, for which she will continue organizing exciting indoor and outdoor exhibitions, sculpture projects, and programming.
As Deputy Director for External Affairs, Klahn will lead the strategic growth of the development, membership, corporate art loan program, and marketing functions in support of deCordova's advancement and greater prominence within the regional, national, and international contemporary art communities. To this position, Klahn brings over 15 years of development experience, including annual fund, major gifts, planned giving events, donor relations, and stewardship. She has held senior management development roles with Harvard University Art Museums and Historic New England. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Philanthropy at the Archaeological Institute of America, where she and her team doubled donations and ran a successful campaign for the Institute's operating endowment.
“Jennifer Klahn is a highly accomplished professional with a proven track record of success in several outstanding Boston area arts and culture organizations,” says John B. Ravenal, Executive Director at deCordova. “I’m delighted to welcome her to deCordova, where we’re already benefitting from her experience.”
In addition, Sarah Montross—who joined deCordova as Associate Curator in June 2015—has been appointed to Curator. In the past three years, Montross has curated or co-curated numerous notable exhibitions, including Screens: Virtual Material (fall 2017); Cool Medium, Art, Television, and Psychedelia, 1960-1980 (fall 2017); Expanding Abstraction: New England Women Painters, 1950 to Now (spring 2017); and the 2016 deCordova New England Biennial. In the Park, she has continued deCordova’s PLATFORM series of commissioned outdoor projects, bringing in work by artists Letha Wilson, Noémie Goudal, and Saul Melman. Finally, she has organized many Sculpture Park loans, including works by Aaron Curry, Nari Ward, and Josephine Halvorson. Currently, she is working on deCordova’s spring 2019 Biennial and spring 2020 Visionary New England exhibition, as well as actively pursuing new additions to the Sculpture Park, including a commissioned project by Andy Goldsworthy.
“Sarah Montross has consistently demonstrated vision, creativity, and intelligence with her curatorial projects and we’re delighted to recognize her enormous contribution to deCordova with this promotion,” says Ravenal. “I look forward to the continued success of our curatorial program under her leadership and in her work with New England, national, and international artists.”
