Caroline Baumann Named Director of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
NEW YORK, June 6, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Caroline Baumann has been named director of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York, effective June 16. Since joining Cooper-Hewitt in 2001, she has held many leadership positions at the museum, most recently as acting director.
Baumann will oversee the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. In this role, she will strengthen Cooper-Hewitt's reputation to educate, inspire and empower people through design and oversee the renovation of the museum and the reinstallation of its galleries, which are set to reopen in fall 2014.
"Caroline is passionate about design and reaching people—physically and digitally—with its lessons and insights," said Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough. "She has been key in the museum's growing success over the years and has been especially adept at forming substantive partnerships in New York, in Washington, across the nation and, indeed, around the world."
"I am honored to serve as the fifth director of Cooper-Hewitt at this seminal time in the museum's history," said Baumann. "We're rolling out an extraordinary plan for a vibrant future and establishing Cooper-Hewitt as the Smithsonian's design lens on the world. The new Cooper-Hewitt visitor experience—physical and digital—will be a global first, a transformative force for all in 2014 and beyond, impacting the way people think about and understand design."
Baumann has been acting director of the museum since September 2012. She also served as associate director, acting director and deputy director between 2006 and 2009. From 1995 to 2001, Baumann worked at the Museum of Modern Art. Before that, she was the director of development at the Calhoun School in Manhattan and art book editor at George Braziller Publishers. She received a master's degree from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and a bachelor's degree from Bates College in Maine.
During her tenure, Baumann has worked on a wide range of issues, including developing and implementing the museum's strategic plan, leading the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the museum's history and managing the museum's educational, curatorial and digital efforts.
Baumann succeeds Bill Moggridge, who was Cooper-Hewitt's director for two years until his death in September 2012.
Secretary Clough named Baumann on the recommendation of a search committee chaired by Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian's Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture.
SOURCE Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
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