PALM SPRINGS, CA.- Palm Springs Art Museum announced that Keri Jhaveri has been named Director of Education. In this role Jhaveri will provide leadership direction to the museum’s education department that will ensure dynamic, engaging programs for expanding and diverse audiences.

“We are very excited to have this creative and experienced educator join our senior staff as we enter a year of strategic planning and innovation,” said Elizabeth Armstrong, The JoAnn McGrath Executive Director for the museum. “Keri Jhaveri’s fresh ideas and professional expertise are a terrific fit for the museum as we develop programming for a new generation of visitors.”

Jhaveri brings a wealth of experience to the position from her previous work with the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville. In her roles with the museum and the arts center her responsibilities have included implementing long-range budget planning and strategic direction, collaborating with curators to develop interpretation plans for exhibitions and related programs, and designing educational programs related to the art collection. In addition, as a Senior Gallery Educator, she has worked with special needs children and created effective methods for teaching teens, while also designing and producing a wide range of Adult Gallery Courses. Jhaveri has also taught Art History at the college level and contributed to independent film and television projects.

Among other accolades, Jhaveri was recently recognized at the National Art Education Association Annual Conference in New Orleans for her work on “Designing a Toolkit for Reflective Museum Practice,” and by the Southeastern Museum Conference last year for her work on “Not as Scary as You Think: Creating Meaningful Museum Programs for Teen Audiences.” In 2012 she received a Certificate of Excellence from the Tennessee Association of Museums for her “Hands-on Materials and Meaning Education Component” for the exhibition A Divine Light: Northern Renaissance Paintings from The Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery, and also a Certificate of Commendation for her program Dial “N” for Nashville: A Teen Video Art Making Workshop at the Frist Center.

Jhaveri received her MA in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin and her BA in Art History from Arizona State University.