Douglas Druick has been named president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), effective immediately. He has been acting director since June 2011, when James Cuno departed to become president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust.
Druick, 66, has been at the Art Institute for 26 years, beginning as chair and curator of prints and drawings, a position he retained until now, also becoming chair of the department of medieval to modern European painting and sculpture. He joined the Art Institute after a 10-year stint as curator of European and American prints at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa (1973–84).
In a press statement, AIC board chair Tom Pritzker observed, “Many curators from the Art Institute have become directors at other museums and cultural organizations. To me, this reflects the strength of our organization. . . . [T]he Art Institute itself is now benefiting directly from the breadth and depth of experience that only an institution of this size and stature can provide.”
Druick received a BA in English and philosophy from McGill University in Montreal in 1966, an MA in English from the University of Toronto in 1967, and, from Yale University, an M.Phil in art history in 1972 and a PhD in 1979.
Among the exhibitions he has organized or co-organized at the Art Institute are “Odilon Redon: Prince of Dreams, 1840–1916” (1994), “Seurat and the Making of La Grande Jatte” (2004), “Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre” (2005) and “Jasper Johns: Gray” (2007).
Among Druick’s professional activities are serving as chairman of the Arts and Artifacts Indemnity Advisory Panel at the National Endowment for the Arts (2002–04) and being a founding board member of the Association of Art Museum Curators (2002–08).
