NEW YORK, NY.- The Board of Trustees of the Queens Museum has named Laura Raicovich the institution’s new President and Executive Director. Raicovich comes to the Queens Museum from Creative Time, where she has served as their Director of Global Initiatives since 2012. Prior to that, she was the Deputy Director of the Dia Art Foundation, and held positions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Public Art Fund, and NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. Raicovich will assume her new position at the Queens Museum on January 1, 2015.

“Laura has spent the past two decades strengthening arts institutions, realizing the visions of artists, and engaging diverse constituencies, and we are excited that she will be leading the Queens Museum,” said Board Chair Peter Meyer. “Our shared philosophy on the future of the museum, belief in the power of the arts to exact positive change, and dedication to making the arts relevant to all audiences made her the right person to move the museum forward.”

Raicovich’s appointment follows a national search by a museum committee headed by Meyer, and immediate past Board Chairs Gretchen Werwaiss and Alan Suna. The search was initiated when former Director Tom Finkelpearl departed to become the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in May 2014.

“With a successful expansion complete, strong and adventurous leadership over the past decade, and a well-deserved reputation as a model for community engagement, education, and outreach, the Queens Museum is in an enviable position, and I am honored to be selected as the new President and Executive Director,” said Raicovich. “Looking forward, pairing engagement and innovation with exceptional artistic production will allow the Queens Museum to occupy a unique place in the pantheon of cultural offerings in New York City, to become an international model, and to serve all of Queens as a world-class art museum.”

Laura Raicovich is an experienced arts professional and a transformative cultural producer. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in both Art and Political Science from Swarthmore College and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her previous professional positions include: Director of Global Initiatives, Creative Time; Deputy Director, Interim Director, Director of External Affairs, Dia Art Foundation; Senior Publicist, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Development and Communications Director, Public Art Fund; and Curator of Public Art, NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. Additionally, she is a member of the Art and Social Justice Working Group, lectures internationally on socially engaged and collaborative art, and she is the author of various essays on art and culture, as well as a recently-published novel based on Viagra and Cialis spam, “A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties.”