MORRISTOWN, NJ.- The Morris Museum has announced the appointment of Ronald T. Labaco as the institution’s new Director of Exhibitions and Chief Curator. Mr. Labaco will assume his post on October 1, 2018.

Mr. Labaco comes to the Morris Museum most recently from the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York City, where he was Senior Curator. He has also held curatorial positions with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He holds an MA in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture from the Bard Graduate Center in New York and a BA in Studio Art from the University of California at Berkeley.

"The Morris Museum is on the cusp of a multi-year pivot, with an increasing emphasis on exhibits of contemporary themes and content, especially in areas of design, sound, and kinetic art,” states Cleveland Johnson, Executive Director of the Morris Museum. “Mr. Labaco, whose background prepares him ideally for this challenge, was strategically chosen to help lead our exhibition program in engaging new directions."

Mr. Labaco’s versatility as an arts professional is demonstrated through his projects at MAD, which include the exhibitions Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital (2013), Wendell Castle Remastered (2015), Japanese Kogei Future Forward (2015), and Studio Job MAD HOUSE (2016), for which he also helped raise significant funding. Out of Hand was critically acclaimed as the first major exhibition to investigate digital fabrication as a 21st-century international trend in art, architecture, and design, and was one of the most successful exhibitions in the museum’s recent history.

He also brings to the Morris Museum a background with contemporary art galleries in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. These combined experiences have contributed to his interdisciplinary outlook on the arts, which explores creative practice at the intersection of art, craft, and design. “I feel that my greatest strength is my ability to adapt to the needs and culture of the different institutions for which I have worked, while maintaining a unique perspective,” says Ronald T. Labaco. “I am thrilled to join the talented staff of the Morris Museum at this exciting time to help develop a compelling exhibitions program that will continue to engage our loyal audiences as well as cultivate new ones.”