Panel discussion: The Changing Face of Museum Leadership

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts will host The Changing Face of Museum Leadership, a discussion with the next generation of art museum leaders. On Monday, September 12, at the ASU California Center in downtown Los Angeles, Miki Garcia, Director of ASU Art Museum; Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, LACMA;, and Franklin Sirmans, director Pérez Art Museum Miami, will be joined by recent graduates of the ASU-LACMA Master’s Fellowship in Art History to discuss the future of leadership in the cultural sector. Recent graduates include: Dhyandra Lawson, Assistant Curator, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Matthew Villar Miranda, Visual Arts Fellow, Walker Art Center; and Celia Yang, Head of Director’s Strategic Initiatives, Asia, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This in-person public event will be moderated by Deborah Cullen-Morales, Program Officer for Arts and Culture, Mellon Foundation, and will be available to view online via a live stream. The event is free and RSVP is required. Contact asulacmaevents [​at​] asu.edu to request a link to attend via Zoom.

The ASU-LACMA Master’s Fellowship in Art History was founded in 2018 as a partnership between ASU and LACMA with the aim to culturally diversify the leadership of art museums in the United States by supporting the professional growth of staff of color already employed at museums. The three-year degree program combines rigorous academic training with on-the-job experience to develop a new generation of diverse museum professionals and to accelerate the careers of talented individuals. The program has trained staff from across the museum field, including curators, educators, directors, registrars, and development, research, and administrative staff. The fellows earn their master’s degree in art history from the ASU School of Art’s distinguished art history program in the Herberger Institute, while also working at LACMA, the ASU Art Museum, and the Pérez Art Museum Miami.

The first cohort of fellows graduated in May 2021, and one fellow graduated this past May. All of the fellows who completed the program have been promoted in their institutions or have new roles with greater responsibility in other institutions.

Recently, LACMA and ASU announced the addition of the Heard Museum to the program, further expanding the partnership’s national consortium of museums. Beginning this fall, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, the renowned contemporary Latin American curator and art historian became the new director of the ASU-LACMA program. 

This fall there are nine fellows in the program: five are second-year fellows, and the other four are just beginning the program. The current fellows are Ellen Joo, Emily Le, Jackeline Lopez, Stephanie Rouinfar, Jayne Manuel, Mariama Salia, and Deliasofia Zacarias, all of whom work at LACMA; Emily Valdes, who works at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and Roshii Montaño, who works at the Heard Museum.