Cultural Comings and Goings: The Jewish Museum’s New Director and More

Mitra Abbaspour and John Riepenhoff are among the insiders stepping into new roles.

From a new curator of modern and contemporary at Harvard Art Museums to the appointment of an executive director at Sculpture Milwaukee, here are some of the most notable role changes recently announced across the arts and culture sphere.

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James S. Snyder to head the Jewish Museum

Older man dressed in suit poses behind yellow color block wall
James S. Snyder previously held positions at the Israel Museum and MOMA. Courtesy The IMG, by Elie Posner

Starting this November, New York’s Jewish Museum will have a new director in James S. Snyder. At 71, Snyder brings more than 30 years of museum experience from his time at both the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, alongside his extensive work in the world of philanthropy.

The search to replace Claudia Gould, who stepped down as director of the Jewish Museum in June after 11 years, was a “rigorous and expansive process,” according to Harriet Schleifer, who co-chaired the search committee at the museum’s board of trustees. “As a well-known relationship builder, he will grow our engagement with artists, institutions, and communities here in New York and increase our visibility and impact globally,” she said in a statement.

Snyder is most well known for his 22 years at the helm of the Israel Museum, where he helped the institution double its annual attendance to nearly one million visitors and increase its endowment more than fivefold to $200 million. In addition to overseeing its most dramatic period of growth, he helped bring its $100 million and 300,000 square-foot expansion to fruition. With Snyder’s international connections, he will help the Jewish Museum advance “connections with Jewish community across the global cultural landscape,” according to Robert A. Pruzan, the museum’s chairman.

Before moving to the Israel Museum in 1997, Snyder worked at MoMA as deputy director for 10 years, overseeing major capital and programming initiatives, its 1984 expansion and its exhibition program both in New York and worldwide. And since 2019, he has served as the executive chair of the Jerusalem Foundation, a nonprofit foundation which promotes the communal coexistence across the city’s diverse communities.

“In addition to its deep and far-ranging collections, dynamic exhibition programming, and professional expertise, what drew me to the Museum is the opportunity it offers to anchor Jewish world culture in the context of the times and places where it has flourished globally,” said Snyder in a statement.

Harvard Art Museums brings in Mitra Abbaspour

Woman with short bob and purple blazer
Mitra Abbaspour will start her new position at Harvard Art Museums in September. Photo: Emile Askey; courtesy of Princeton University Art Museum

Meanwhile, the Harvard Art Museums, which oversees three separate museums and four research centers, has announced Mitra Abbaspour as its new curator of modern and contemporary art and its new head of the museum’s division of modern and contemporary art. Beginning in September, Abbaspour will be responsible for the division’s more than 110,000 drawings, paintings, photographs and other works of art, which span from 1901 to present day.

“Mitra’s stellar curatorial and teaching experience, her scholarly interests, and her passion for connecting with audiences are deeply aligned with our mission,” said Martha Tedeschi, director of Harvard Art Museums, in a statement. This won’t be Abbaspour’s first time working at an academic art institution, as she is currently a curator at the Princeton University Art Museum and has headed its modern and contemporary collections since 2016. During that time, she has curated and co-curated nearly a dozen exhibitions, including the 2023 Cycle of Creativity: Alison Saar and the Toni Morrison papers and the 2018 Frank Stella Unbound: Literature and Printmaking.

Abbaspour has also delved into the world of photography, having previously served as an associate curator at both the MoMA’s department of photography and the at the California Museum of Photography. Her teaching experiences have primarily focused on her specialization  of modern and contemporary art of the Middle East, with courses taught at New York academic institutions like Brooklyn College, Hunger College, Cooper Union and the Borough of Manhattan Community College.

A multiyear “rethinking and reframing” of Harvard Art Museums’ permanent collections and galleries will be a priority for Abbaspour in her new position. She will also focus on diversifying the division’s collection, organizing major exhibitions, seeking partnerships for programming and hosting dialogues on the most critical issues pertaining to modern and contemporary art.

John Riepenhoff to oversee the annual Sculpture Milwaukee event

Man with long brown hair and baseball hat wearing blue sweater and white pants
John Riepenhoff has previously worked with Sculpture Milwaukee as a curator. Daniel McCullough

Over in Wisconsin, John Riepenhoff, a gallerist, artist and curator, will take over Sculpture Milwaukee as its new executive director, a position occupied by Brian Schupper since 2018. Now in its seventh year, Sculpture Milwaukee is an annual outdoor exhibition of public sculpture that serves as a “catalyst for community engagement, economic development, and creative placemaking,” according to the organization.

Before being appointed director, Riepenhoff was already working with the arts initiative as curator for the 2023 Sculpture Milwaukee exhibition Actual Fractals, Act 1. “I see my leadership role at Sculpture Milwaukee as an opportunity to forward the direction established in the first seven years of our organization, with respect for major currents in art while giving attention to undercurrents and the unexpected, with a focus on underrepresented artists,” he said in a statement.

In addition to co-owning Milwaukee’s Green Gallery, Riepenhoff runs both the Open Fund, which gives grants to experimental and public art projects, and the Beer Endowment, which partners with breweries to raise money for artists and various art institutions. He has also previously co-organized art fairs like the Milwaukee International and Dark Fairs, in addition to presenting a number of exhibitions and curatorial projects at institutions like the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Tate Modern, the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, among others.

The event’s new leader will help establish the annual exhibition as a mainstay of Milwaukee, according to Wayne Morgan, chairman of Sculpture Milwaukee. “John’s expertise, tireless commitment, and well-earned reputation within the local, national, and global art community positions our organization to elevate from our foundational phase to a position of permanence,” he said in a statement.

Cultural Comings and Goings: The Jewish Museum’s New Director and More