CINCINNATI, OH.- The Cincinnati Art Museum announced today that Chief Curator and Curator of Photography James Crump has resigned to pursue independent projects. James Crump joined the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2008. He has augmented the Art Museum’s collection of photography, has fostered new and interdisciplinary approaches to presenting and interpreting the collection, and has organized popular and critically well-received exhibitions.

The Cincinnati Art Museum thanks James Crump for his tireless efforts to help bring people and art together through popular exhibitions like James Welling: Monograph, Herb Ritts: L.A. Style, Walker Evans: Decade by Decade, and Starburst: Color Photography in America 1970-1980, and for organizing the first-ever FotoFocus program of events that filled Cincinnati with photo-based work and attracted an international audience.

FotoFocus also brought Doug and Mike Starn’s Gravity of Light to Cincinnati. The popular Gravity of Light, held at Holy Cross Church at the Monastery in Mt. Adams, was the first off-site exhibition organized by the Cincinnati Art Museum.

“We are so grateful for the great work James has done here in Cincinnati,” said Art Museum Director Aaron Betsky; “his exhibitions and acquisitions have made us a center for photography, and we look forward to building on his extraordinary achievements. We wish him the best of luck in his new ventures and look forward to working with him on several outstanding projects.”

An interim Chief Curator will be announced shortly.