MIAMI, FL.- In preparation for its move to a new, expanded facility, Miami Art Museum, a leading modern and contemporary art museum located in Miami, FL, has named Emily Mello director of education and public programs. In this role, Mello will oversee MAM’s diverse educational programming that today reaches nearly 35,000 people, and will plan for the greatly expanded educational offerings that will be available when the Museum’s new facility in downtown Miami’s Museum Park opens to the public in 2013.

Now under construction, the new MAM will be more than three times the size of its current facility, and will feature an educational complex with a library, auditorium, classrooms, media lab and workshop space. Through The Knight School Education Program, an initiative made possible by a $10 million grant from the Knight Foundation, MAM will be able to serve more than twice as many school children every year once it moves to its expanded space.

“Miami Art Museum currently runs the largest art education program outside of the Miami-Dade County public school system, providing children with a unique opportunity to develop creativity and critical thinking skills,” said MAM Director Thom Collins. “With Emily’s in-depth knowledge of arts education and expanded education programs at the new facility, MAM will have the opportunity to enrich thousands more children and adults with experiences that will enable them to expand their minds through the arts.”

Mello brings with her extensive experience in arts education, having created education and public programs in museums of modern and contemporary art for ten years. Prior to joining MAM, Emily served as curator of education at the Neuberger Museum of Purchase College where she organized numerous artist talks, screenings, teacher professional development days, interdisciplinary academic symposia and performances. She has also served as director of education at the Rose Art Museum at Brandies University in Massachusetts and curator of education at the Contemporary Art Center in Ohio. She holds a Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

“I’m thrilled by the various spaces in the new MAM facility that inspire multiple entry points for serving adult learners, families and Miami-Dade school children," said Mello. “I look forward to augmenting the adult learning opportunities we currently offer as well as piloting program ideas that will lead to expanded opportunities that include cross-disciplinary perspectives, making the best use of technology, presenting performances, screenings, and talks, art making and programs that defy categorization.”

Despite that fact that MAM’s current building was originally designed to serve solely as an exhibition hall and lacks defined educational spaces, the Museum has developed the largest museum-based art education program in Miami Dade County.

Museum admission is always free for students of all ages, and MAM offers a variety of free educational programs at the Museum and throughout the community, including: free second Saturdays with art activities and family-friendly exhibition tours; Carnival’s Art-2-Go, in which MAM educators bring art activities to community centers throughout Miami Dade County; Brick x Brick, an after-school program for underserved teens that uses the new MAM building project as an educational tool; and a variety of adult learning experiences including artist talks, lectures and more.

The Museum’s MAM & Schools program offers free buses to visit MAM, free guided museum tours for students and their teachers, free classroom visits, and free support materials for teachers at Teacher Workshops.