HOUSTON, TX.- Gary Tinterow, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, today announced the appointment of Caroline Goeser as W.T. and Louise J. Moran Chair of the Department of Learning and Interpretation. Goeser comes to the Museum from the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), where she was most recently Director of Education and Interpretation. During her six-year tenure in Cleveland, Goeser guided the reinstallation and reinterpretation of the permanent collection, reorganized the education department and led the museum’s collaborative interpretation program.

“I am thrilled that Caroline Goeser is joining our team,” said Tinterow. “With nearly 25 years of experience and a distinguished roster of achievements in museum education, Caroline is ideally suited to this critical role. Building on the great strengths of the Museum’s programming and outreach, she will bring a dynamic new vision to our engagement with Houston’s many audiences.”

At the MFAH Goeser will direct and oversee the Department of Learning and Interpretation, as well as the Junior School of the Glassell School of Art. From school and educator programs to interpretive resources in the galleries to a broad range of programs for the public that include guided tours, concerts and lectures, Goeser will guide implementation of education initiatives that reach tens of thousands of people each year.

“It is exciting to join the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston when both the Museum and the city are poised for great things,” Goeser commented. “Museum education is also at a vibrant crossroads, with a constant flow of new opportunities to engage local, national and international communities with works of art in meaningful and transformative ways.”

Goeser joined the staff of the CMA in 2009 as Director of Interpretation, and was promoted to Director of Education and Interpretation in 2011. In that position, she secured a National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant to create a $2 million endowment for the interpretation program, and led content production and collaboration with curators in Gallery One, an interactive gallery and learning space for intergenerational museum visitors. She also collaborated with colleagues at the CMA and Case Western University to re-envision a joint doctoral program in art history to focus on object-based teaching and research.

Goeser earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history at Carleton College and a Master of Arts and Ph. D. in art history from Rutgers University. In 2000, following the completion of her dissertation, Goeser taught at the School of Art at the University of Houston, where she assumed various leadership roles, was awarded tenure and spearheaded the creation of a new graduate program in art history and curatorial studies.

Goeser has published and lectured widely in the fields of museum education and interpretation, as well as 20th-century American art history, in particular the work of African American artists. Her 2007 book, Picturing the New Negro: Harlem Renaissance Print Culture and Modern Black Identity, won the Vasari Award for best book in art history from the Dallas Museum of Art in 2008.

Goeser begins her new role in April 2014.