DENVER, COLORADO.- The Denver Art Museum has announced two staff changes: Melora McDermott is now Director of Education, and Thomas Delapa has been named film series curator. Melora McDermott-Lewis and Patterson B. Williams have completed a three-year "co-direction" of the Denver Art Museum's education department. Melora McDermott-Lewis has now assumed the position of Director of Education, and Patty Williams is Deputy Director of the department. The former title of Dean of Education has been retired.

The Denver Art Museum is nationally recognized for its family-friendly programs and has received acclaim for encouraging art appreciation among young people via a variety of free, hands-on, interactive activities available throughout the galleries. The Education Department continues to place a high priority on collaborating on installations and exhibitions and on providing interactive school tours. They also want to strengthen formal learning offerings for adults and children and develop new types of drop-in programming. The auditorium and galleries that will be available in the new Frederic C. Hamilton Building (opening in fall 2006) make this an opportune time to strengthen these directions.

In addition, Thomas Delapa has been named Film Series Curator. Delapa has hosted such popular public film series for the Denver Art Museum Museum as "The Mean Streets of Film Noir," "European Masters," and "Screen Divas" since 1998.

Delapa has been the Boulder Weekly film critic since its inception in 1993 and has been its Associate Editor since 2003; since 2003, his reviews have also been reprinted in Fort Collins Weekly. He currently reviews movies for KUVO radio (89.3 FM). From 2001?2003, he acted as guest curator and host for the Reel Love avant-garde film series at the Museum of Contemporary Art-Denver.

In his capacity as film critic, he has addressed such groups and organizations as the Denver Public Library, the Denver Psychoanalytic Society, the Denver Bar Association, the Denver Jazz on Film Festival, Denver Eclectics, Beaver Creek Film Festival, Douglas County Libraries, Naropa University in Boulder, and Elitch's Denver Outdoor Cinema. In addition, Delapa has been the movie critic for radio stations KNRC-AM (Denver), KWAB-AM (Boulder), and WBEZ-FM (Chicago).

He has taught undergraduate film at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Denver, the University of Denver, Metropolitan State College, and Regis University. He has written on film and theater since 1984 for such publications as the Chicago Tribune, the Pulitzer newspaper chain (Chicago) and Westword (Denver). In New York City, he has worked at the American Museum of the Moving Image and for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). In Los Angeles, he worked at Charles Fries Productions, a television production company.

He holds two Master's degrees: one from New York University (Cinema Studies) and the University of Chicago (Social Sciences). He received a B.A. in political science from the University of Colorado (Phi Beta Kappa).