SAN DIEGO.- The San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) announces that executive director, Dr. Don Bacigalupi, has resigned in order to accept the position of director of the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio. Bacigalupi will leave his position at SDMA in early October 2003 and begin his new position in Toledo in late November 2003.
“I am proud to have been a part of the search committee that brought Don to SDMA four years ago. Though his dedication and strength of vision will be sorely missed, he has put the Museum in the strongest of positions for much continued success in the future,” says Chuck Hellerich, the newly elected president of SDMA’s Board of Trustees.
“This appointment (in Toledo) is a complement to him and the Museum. We wanted someone with fire in his belly, and we got someone like that—someone who could do some fence mending, someone who could help us take our place in the community of museums and as an educational resource,” says Dan Stephen, SDMA’s outgoing board president.
Bacigalupi joined the San Diego Museum of Art as executive director in 1999. Under his stewardship, SDMA has undergone extensive renovation and restoration work in its rotunda and sculpture court area; organized a number of important exhibitions, including High Societies, Axis Mexico, Idol of the Moderns: Pierre-Auguste Renoir and American Painting, and an international tour of the exhibition Power & Desire: South Asian Paintings from the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, for which accompanying catalogues were published; added important artworks to all areas of its collection; greatly expanded its educational outreach efforts, which included an extensive bilingual component; and revitalized its contemporary art program with the hiring of curator Betti-Sue Hertz.
Before coming to SDMA, Bacigalupi served as director and chief curator at Blaffer Gallery, the art museum of the University of Houston (1995-1999). Prior to his position there, he served as Brown Curator of Contemporary Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art (1993-1995) and chief curator and advisor for The Whatley Collection in Austin, Texas (1990-1993). He received his Ph.D. in art history from the University of Texas, Austin (1993).
A search committee appointed by the San Diego Museum of Art’s Board of Trustees will conduct a search for Bacigalupi’s replacement. The committee will commence its deliberations in the coming weeks.