The Museum of Art and Design in New York. Photo: Mark B. Schlemmer CC 2.0
Christopher Scoates joins the MAD in New York as Director after a stint at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum in Michigan
The Museum of Art and Design (MAD) in New York has announced the appointment of Christopher Scoates as its new director.
Currently serving as the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Director at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Scoates will join MAD as the Nanette L Laitman Director on July 1, 2018.
“I am deeply honored to have been chosen to lead MAD,” said Scoates. “I greatly admire the Museum’s track record of experimental exhibitions, and I look forward to building upon its rich history of craft, art, and design. With its dedicated staff and board, I know we can position ourselves as a leading museum in the twenty-first century. I am eager to begin developing new experiences for our audiences that will honor the history of MAD while also using art and design to challenge the way we think about the future.”
Originally from Andover, England, Scoates developed an experimental media division at Cranbrook, and is credited with raising the profile of that institution internationally. He has also served as a director of the University Art Museum at California State University, Long Beach, and was Chief Curator of the University Museum of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Speaking to the appointment, Board Chair Michele Cohen said, “Chris is a proven leader with over twenty-five years of experience in museum practice and education, whose interests encompass art, craft, design,experimental sound, and new media, and their relationship to contemporary culture. On behalf of the Board of Trustees of MAD, I am proud to welcome him, and I look forward to his tenure at the helm of the Museum.”
