COURTESY MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, NORTH MIAMI
After a two-year search, the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami has named Chana Budgazad Sheldon as its new executive director, the Miami Herald reported. Sheldon has worked most recently at the nonprofit ProjectArt, where she was director and national program adviser.
The director position at MOCA had been vacant since 2015, when its former executive director, Babacar M’Bow, was suspended and subsequently fired after being accused of sexual harassment. (M’Bow denied the claims.) Prior to M’Bow’s departure, the museum had experienced various difficulties, including the loss of its longtime director, Bonnie Clearwater, to Nova Southeastern University’s Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, and the defeat of a $15 million expansion proposal by city residents.
Sheldon is well-known in Miami. Before working at ProjectArt, which is based in New York, Sheldon was the executive director of Locust Projects, a nonprofit alternative space that has proven essential to the Floridian city’s art scene.
Sheldon told the Miami Herald, “MOCA has been among the most important institutions in South Florida for more than three decades. It has an incredible legacy of presenting wonderful exhibitions in our city and beyond. To have the honor of leading an institution with this rich history in the region where I live is a great honor.”