KARIN ALFREDSSON
Yale University announced today that it has hired curator Marta Kuzma, the vice chancellor and rector of the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, Sweden, as the next dean of its School of Art. Kuzma will be the first woman to serve in the position in the school’s 147-year history.
Kuzma takes the place of curator Robert Storr, who took the reins in 2006 after four years as a professor at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. “Ten years is enough,” Storr said in an interview with the New York Times, which first reported the news. “More than enough.” He added that he will probably take a sabbatical.
Kuzma has led the Royal Institute of Art since 2014, before which she was director of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway, an organization that produces curatorial and educational projects, for eight years. She has also been establishing director of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art in Kiev, Ukraine, artistic director of the Washington Project for the Arts, in Washington, D.C., and the leader of the international exhibitions program at International Center of Photography in New York.
“Dean Storr has been an exemplary leader,” Yale’s president, Peter Salovey, said in a statement released to press. “During his time as dean, he has hired new faculty, overseen the upgrading of facilities, and brought the school into even greater international prominence. I am very grateful for his wisdom and hard work, and I am delighted that after a well-deserved sabbatical next year, he will return to Yale to serve as a member of the school’s faculty.”