Laura Raicovich, 41, has been named the new president and executive director of the Queens Museum, New York, effective Jan. 1, 2015. Her appointment follows the departure of former director Tom Finkelpearl, who left the museum in May to become commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs under Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Raicovich comes to the museum from New York-based nonprofit Creative Time, where she has served as director of global initiatives since 2012. Prior posts include the Dia Art Foundation, where she was deputy director for ten years, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Public Art Fund and the Department of Parks and Recreation, all in New York.
Located on property owned by the City of New York in one of the most ethnically diverse residential areas in the country, the Queens Museum is dedicated to serving local as well as international audiences. To this end, the institution recently underwent a two-year $68-million expansion, completed in November 2013, which doubled its size. In an email announcing her departure from Creative Time, Raicovich wrote, “[The Queens Museum’s] history of engagement and innovation, paired with its recent expansion, creates a dynamic space for great art, participation, and dialogue to come together.”
Additionally, Raicovich is a member of the Art and Social Justice Working Group, lecturing internationally on socially engaged and collaborative art. She is the author of essays on art and culture and recently published the novel A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties (published serially in The Brooklyn Rail). Raicovich graduated from Swarthmore College and holds a master’s degree in liberal studies from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.
