NEW YORK, NY.- Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation announced the appointment of Cyra Levenson to the position of Deputy Director and Gail Engelberg Director of Education and Public Engagement. Levenson will be responsible for the development and implementation of learning and engagement opportunities for modern and contemporary art and architecture at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and will have a significant role in partnering across the foundation’s international network. She comes to the Guggenheim Museum from the Cleveland Museum of Art, where she was Deputy Director and Head of Public and Academic Engagement. Levenson will begin her new position on March 3, 2020.

“For more than two decades, Cyra has built a distinguished career in museums with a powerful, public-centric vision focused on inclusivity and collaboration. Her enthusiastic and bold approach makes her the ideal person to advance our work ensuring constituencies of all ages and backgrounds have access to the transformative and meaningful experiences that art provides,” stated Armstrong. “We look forward to her being in active dialogue across the Guggenheim’s international constellation and furthering our mission of presenting the art of today.”

“The Guggenheim is a place that is dedicated to the exchange between artists and the broader world, making it possible to explore new ways of seeing and new ways of understanding,” said Cyra Levenson. “I’m honored to be able to play a part in that wonderful expanding vision.”

A vital member of the Guggenheim’s senior leadership team and executive cabinet, Levenson will head the Education Department’s activities to develop, present, and cultivate learning and engagement for all visitors, including youth, families, and adults. Levenson will introduce content that explores the collection and exhibitions and oversee programming that serves an average of 250,000 students, teachers, scholars, artists, and members of the public each year. She will provide leadership for the museum’s ongoing school and family programs, internships, access programs, and interpretive and public programs, including the longstanding Learning Through Art artist residency program in New York City public schools, and, with the museum’s curatorial team, the Guggenheim Social Practice initiative. Working closely with the Board of Trustees’ Education Committee and the museum’s senior leadership, she will assist in establishing and sustaining relationships with cultural organizations, academic groups, and funders. She will also partner with education colleagues at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and will develop program and audience engagement strategies for the future museum in Abu Dhabi.

Levenson has served at the Cleveland Museum of Art since 2016, where she most recently was Deputy Director and Head of Public and Academic Engagement. In this role, she was responsible for leading all aspects of public and academic engagement, including public programming, academic affairs, interpretation of the collection and exhibitions, and community engagement. She established a community participation process for capital projects and led efforts to implement the museum’s diversity, equity, and inclusion plan as well as a strategic planning process with Case Western Reserve University. Previously, Levenson served as the Curator of Education and Academic Outreach at the Yale Center for British Art. She was also the Co-executive Secretary of the Yale-Smithsonian Partnership and was responsible for developing and leading the academic and public engagement initiative between the two institutions. Levenson has also held positions in the museum education field at The Rubin Museum of Art, The Heritage School in New York, and Seattle Art Museum. She holds a Master of Education degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College. Her research interests include creativity and cognition, visual literacy, and critical pedagogy.