DENVER, COLORADO.- The Denver Art Museum has hired a new director for the Institute of Western American Art (IWAA). Peter H. Hassrick, a leading scholar in the field of Western American art and long-time director of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, will head the Institute. With more than 35 years of experience in the field, Hassrick brings a depth of knowledge and perspective that will further develop this collection into a major highlight for the region. Joan Carpenter Troccoli, former director and curator of the Institute, will become the senior scholar in the department to focus on writing and curatorial duties associated with exhibitions and publications. Troccoli was instrumental in the formation of the IWAA and will continue to be actively involved in the department. With less administrative responsibility, Troccoli will have the ability to focus on furthering the Institute's scholarly prestige. Hassrick and Troccoli are top authorities in the field of Western American art and their combined expertise further establishes the Denver Art Museum's position as a leader in this area.

Hassrick is the Founding Director Emeritus of the Charles M. Russell Center for the Study of Art of the American West at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. He was also the founding director of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For 20 years prior to that, Hassrick served as the director of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody. He has written extensively on a variety of Western American artists, including Alfred Jacob Miller, George Catlin, William Ranney, Charles Russell, Frederic Remington, Alexander Phimister Proctor, Solon Borglum and Georgia O'Keeffe. He is the reigning national authority on Frederic Remington and a member of the Charles Russell catalogue raisonné team. Hassrick was born in Philadelphia and raised in Denver. He earned a B.A. in History from the University of Colorado and an M.A. in Art History from the University of Denver, with a concentration in 19th-century and early 20th-century American art.

As of June 22, all available floors of the Denver Art Museum will be open from 5 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday nights. However, the Museum's second floor will be closed to the public beginning Monday, July 4, 2005, to allow for the connection of the new Hamilton Building and the existing building. Starting in July, objects in the Northwest Coast American Indian and Architecture, Design & Graphics galleries will be moved and protected to accommodate construction in early September. The second floor will remain closed until the new complex opens in the fall of 2006, and will be reinstalled similarly to how it is now.