NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art announces the appointments of Rob Baker as Director of Marketing & Creative Strategy and Leah Dickerman as Director of Editorial & Content Strategy. Together they will lead MoMAs creative team, setting and executing an integrated strategy to serve the mission and curatorial goals of the institution. The roles reflect the Museums deep commitment to sharing its collection, knowledge and scholarship and providing new opportunities for audience engagement.
Ms. Dickerman and Mr. Baker will co-lead the effort to share stories and create conversations about the art MoMA collects and displays. These are new and collaborative positions at MoMA, representing a transformation of its approach to storytelling and marketing that will use both traditional and new media in innovative ways to showcase great art and artists, reach new audiences and deepen engagement.
MoMA Director Glenn Lowry said, I am delighted to welcome Rob, who brings to MoMA his formidable marketing and communications leadership experience, and congratulate Leah, who has been a thought leader, curator, and scholar, and will now apply those extraordinary talents in new and different ways. They are both uniquely qualified for the vital roles they are about to play at MoMA as it looks to the future. Together they will provide leadership across the organization to develop a compelling strategy that is creative, thoughtful, and inclusive, and brings together voices within and from outside MoMA.
Mr. Baker comes to MoMA as a highly accomplished marketing professional with more than 14 years of experience, most recently as Chief Marketing Officer for Tate in London. At Tate, Baker led the development of the brand vision, design, and strategy for the largest network of art galleries in the U.K.with more than eight million visitors annuallyincluding the launch of the new Tate Modern in 2016. He oversaw the advancement of innovative visitor and membership engagement initiatives and led collaborative teams across the Tate to define new communication strategies and partnership opportunities. Baker led communication campaigns in support of the Tates groundbreaking programs and exhibitions, including David Hockney, the most extensive retrospective of the artists work, which was the most successful exhibition at Tate Britain and the second most attended exhibition in Tate´s history. Baker previously served as the Head of Marketing for the Barbican Centre, London, the largest arts and conference center in Europe, creating integrated campaigns that supported multi-layered exhibitions, film programs, music festivals, and theater performances. He led the development of a new digital strategy for the Barbican across content, its web site and social media.
Baker said It is a great privilege to be joining MoMA, an iconic cultural institution known and admired around the world, and I look forward to working with Leah and the Museums superb team of creative professionals. With the successful completion of its building renovation and expansion program just around the corner and its visionary plans for making the breadth of its collection even more accessible, it is an incredibly exciting time to be part of MoMA.
Ms. Dickerman is well-known to MoMA audiences as a respected scholar and organizer of many acclaimed exhibitions. She has been a curator in MoMAs Department of Painting and Sculpture since 2008, serving most recently as the Museums first Marlene Hess Curator of Painting and Sculpture, a post endowed in 2015. Her exhibitions have offered important new perspectives on modern art with innovative presentations and rich layered content extending beyond the galleries to publications, digital initiatives, public conversations, and live performances. Projects organized or co-organized by Ms. Dickerman include Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends (2017); One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrences Migration Series and Other Visions of the Great Movement North (2015-2016); Inventing Abstraction, 19101925 (2012-2013); Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art (2011-2012); and Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris (2005). Her new role will also build on her broad institutional leadership at MoMA with participation on various guiding committees at the Museum, including Planning, Digital Strategy, Publications Editorial Board, and Public Programs. Since 2013, Ms. Dickerman has also held the position of Director of the Museum Research Consortium, a program she initiated and will continue to direct, aimed at fostering dialogue between museum and academic communities and mentoring the next generation of art historians and curators. She previously served as Acting Head of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Art, and has taught at Princeton University, Columbia University, Stanford University, and the University of Delaware. She holds a Doctorate in Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University. A search for Ms. Dickermans replacement in the Department of Painting and Sculpture is in process.
Dickerman said, One of the great joys I have found in working at MoMA is the ability to spark conversations with our audiences about art, artists, and the world around us. To think in new ways about how our platforms can nurture thought, discussion, and inspiration is a key challenge facing museums now. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with Rob and my colleagues across the Museum to create a comprehensive strategy for developing innovative content about our extraordinary collection and programs in ways that are relevant for today.
In the last year, MoMA has engaged an audience of more than 40 million worldwide across multiple platformsincluding onsite visitation, touring exhibitions, online, social media and video. MoMAs content, generated from its unparalleled collection of modern and contemporary art, exhibitions, and programs, is shared via MoMA.org, social media, YouTube, apps, print and digital publications, education programs and courses, among other channels.
The two appointments are effective in October.