LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY.- The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees today approved the appointment of Kathleen A. Walsh-Piper as director of the University of Kentucky Art Museum. Walsh-Piper, former director of education and public programs for the Dallas Museum of Art, replaces Harriet Fowler who retired last year after ten years as director of the Art Museum. Dr. Donald Sands, a retired UK professor, has been serving as interim director since July of 2001.



The new art museum director has bachelor and master's degrees in art history from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. She has written extensively about art and children, art and writing, and the role of art museums in education. Her most recent work, published in September 2001, is titled Image to Word: Art and Creative Writing.



Before joining the staff of the Dallas Museum of Art in 1995, Walsh-Piper served as a cultural specialist for the U.S. Information Agency. From 1988 to 1995, she headed the department of teacher and school programs for the National Gallery of Art. She was director of education for the Terra Museum of American Art in Chicago from 1985 to 1988. Prior to that, she served as an assistant director of museum education at the Art Institute of Chicago and as coordinator of the resource center at the St. Louis Art Museum. Among her professional activities, Walsh-Piper serves on the education committee of the College Art Association. She was a museum guest scholar for the Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities in 1998.