CINCINNATI, OH.- The Board of Trustees of the
Cincinnati Art Museum today unanimously voted to name Cameron Kitchin as the museum’s director. Kitchin, a nationally recognized innovator and leader in the museum field, comes to Cincinnati from the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Tenn., where he served as director. Kitchin will begin in his new position on Oct. 1. He will report to the museum’s Board of Trustees.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Cincinnati Art Museum, I am excited to announce the appointment of Cameron Kitchin as our new director,” said Marty Ragland, president of the Board of Trustees and co-leader of the search committee. “From Day 1, our members and patrons, as well as members of our search committee, board and staff, agreed that, in addition to being an accomplished museum leader, our new director must have a passion for art, be a strategic thinker and embrace our city with the goal of bringing people to the enjoyment of art. We found these qualities and many more in Cameron.”
Kitchin will oversee the entire institution, including collections, staff, facilities, exhibitions, research resources, education and outreach programs, external relations, fundraising and administrative activities. As an arts and cultural leader, Kitchin will initiate, maintain and develop new partnerships and collaborations in Cincinnati, the state and the region to enhance and support the Cincinnati Art Museum’s mission to bring people and art together in ways that transform everyday lives and the community.
Kitchin’s appointment comes at the end of a nearly seven-month search by the committee led by Ragland and board chairman Dave Dougherty. The Board of Trustees also hired professional search firm, Russell Reynolds Associates, to help guide the process. Kitchin won the unanimous vote of the search committee prior to going to the board vote.
"I am greatly honored to be appointed to serve as director of the Cincinnati Art Museum,” Kitchin shared. “I look forward to joining with the Cincinnati community to grow the museum's role in the life of our new city. I have long admired the Art Museum’s exhibitions, programs, collections and transformative educational initiatives. I am excited now to lead a team of talented professionals and supporters, with our dedicated trustees, to expand the impact and to broaden the reach of the museum to serve all Cincinnatians."
Kitchin led the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, one of the South’s leading art museums, for six years. He oversaw the growth of the museum as a community-based institution, leveraging the museum’s significant collections and history to forge new partnerships with a wide network of cultural institutions, educational entities, universities and social service agencies. Under his leadership, the Brooks engaged in rigorous new educational initiatives, pursued exciting original scholarship and successfully achieved broad appeal in exhibitions and programs. Kitchin led the museum through two comprehensive strategic plans, a capital plan and a groundbreaking program in early childhood education in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. Other significant new achievements included art therapy, Alzheimer’s services, teen art programs and overhauls of critical museum systems, collections databases and security infrastructure. Kitchin’s innovations and effectiveness in reaching new audiences across the entire community, building bridges through public service and leading a diverse and talented professional museum team drew the attention of the Cincinnati Art Museum’s search committee. In addition, Kitchin’s use of technology as a tool for exploring art and his creative public programming impressed the museum’s board.
Prior to joining the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Kitchin served as executive director of the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, the statewide contemporary art museum in Virginia. During his six years there, he led the museum through a comprehensive institutional revitalization, increased visitation and achieved a balanced budget every year. He also mounted numerous acclaimed exhibitions of national and international note while simultaneously opening the doors to new audiences through creative programming. His successful completion of a major capital campaign and commitment to social discourse at the museum raised the museum to new heights during his tenure.
Previously, Kitchin managed Economics Research Associates’ national consulting practice for museums and cultural attractions for three years in Washington, D.C., and led the economics component of Washington’s Museums and Memorials Master Plan, as well as studies for the Newseum and National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, D.C. In previous engagements, he directed the American Alliance of Museums’ strategic planning process, headed AAM’s national political campaign in support of museums and led a complex digital copyright initiative for museums.
Kitchin is an active member of the Association of Art Museum Directors and has served on numerous task forces, including one on AAMD’s national standards on deaccessioning and broadened and diversified the membership of the association as an appointee to the AAMD membership committee. He received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Harvard University in 1993 and an MBA with a concentration in not-for-profit and museum management from the Mason Graduate School of Business, William & Mary in 1999. Kitchin was also selected from among top international museum professionals to participate as a residential program fellow in the Getty Leadership Institute’s Museum Leadership Institute, the most rigorous and longest-established academic program for interdisciplinary museum leadership, in 2008. He is also an AAM accreditation peer reviewer, an IMLS national grant panelist and an active leader in numerous professional associations and societies.
Kitchin will relocate to Cincinnati this fall. He will be joined by his wife Katie - a national public policy expert in homelessness and child and family wellbeing - and his three young children, ages 10, 7 and 3.
