Dallas, TX—August 20, 2025—The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) announced today that Brian Ferriso has been appointed as the Museum’s next Eugene McDermott Director. For nearly 20 years, Ferriso has served as Director of the Portland Art Museum (PAM), where he is currently leading the museum through a comprehensive campus transformation that opens to the public this November. Ferriso comes to the DMA—the anchor of Dallas’s vibrant Arts District—with nearly three decades of leadership experience, demonstrated success leading major capital projects and a deep commitment to community engagement and accessibility. Ferriso will assume his new role at the DMA on December 1, 2025.
“Brian Ferriso is a leader with a proven track record in realizing successful capital campaigns and sustainable organizational growth. He has shaped an ambitious vision for the Portland Art Museum and developed programs that advance its cultural, civic and social role in the city and region. With this powerful combination of skills and expertise, we are confident that Brian is the right director to shepherd the DMA into its next era as a thriving institution with a growing collection that is more inclusive, more accessible and more reflective of the community we serve,” said the Dallas Museum of Art’s Board President Gowri Natarajan Sharma. “Many thanks to our search committee, led by co-chairs Sharon Young and Max Lamont, for helping us secure our ideal candidate.”
“I’ve long believed that museums can play a vital role within the civic and social fabric of a community, and as the City’s museum, the Dallas Museum of Art is the perfect place for me to carry on this work. The Museum is at an inflection point, with an impressive legacy behind it and a new future ahead, catalyzed by the current expansion project that will allow the DMA to establish greater connections with the community through its outstanding collections and programs. I feel lucky to join at such a transformative moment and am excited to work hand-in-hand with the Museum’s dedicated staff and Board—as well as City leaders, stakeholders and the public—to help shape the evolving vision for the DMA,” said Ferriso.
Since his appointment as Director of the Portland Art Museum in 2006, Ferriso has more than doubled the Museum’s curatorial staff and permanently endowed almost half of those positions, increased the endowment by $40 million, and eliminated $7 million in unfunded debt. Committed to expanding opportunities for learning and access, Ferriso also created the Art Access Endowment at PAM, which supports free admission in perpetuity for children 17 and under, free school tours and family free days. Under his leadership, PAM served as the co-presenting institution for the space in which to place me (2024), Jeffrey Gibson’s exhibition for the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale—the first solo presentation by an Indigenous artist for the U.S. Pavilion.
At the helm of PAM’s soon-to-be-completed expansion and renovation project—opening to the public on November 20, 2025—Ferriso has led the fundraising of more than $140 million for the construction and endowment of the revitalized museum campus. Designed in partnership by Portland’s Hennebery Eddy Architects and Chicago-based Vinci Hamp Architects, the project knits together the museum’s two historic buildings by Pietro Belluschi and Frederick Fritsch and adds nearly 100,000 square feet of public and gallery spaces, providing increased access to PAM’s exhibitions and programs, new ways to experience its robust collection and new amenities that address the needs of more diverse audiences. The project bolsters the Museum’s role as a “cultural commons” for the city of Portland and follows the 2023 opening of the PAM CUT // Center for an Untold Tomorrow, an off-campus space that presents film and new media in Southeast Portland and expands the museum’s presence and reach across the city.
Ferriso has driven the diversification of PAM’s collection to incorporate more works by underrepresented artists, with an emphasis on acquiring works by women, Native American and Black artists, as well as by other artists of color. He has also worked to expand engagement with the Native American community and its representation within the museum, including creating a new Assistant Curator of Native American Art position, adding Native American representation to the museum’s Board and establishing a Native American Advisory Committee to provide guidance on exhibitions and programs.
Other notable exhibitions organized by PAM under Ferriso’s tenure include Black Artists of Oregon (2023); Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal… (2019); Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection (2015); and The Enclave: Richard Mosse (2014). Ferriso initiated a series of single-work exhibitions and curated several of these, including Titian’s La Bella (2011), Thomas Moran’s Shoshone Falls on the Snake River (2010) and Raphael’s La Donna Velata (2009). He also launched a series of highly successful design-focused exhibitions exploring the influence of art and design on architecture, fashion, consumer goods, and luxury products, including Cyclepedia: Iconic Bicycle Design (2013).
Prior to joining the Portland Art Museum, Ferriso served as Director of the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, OK, from 2002 to 2006. He has also held positions as Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Milwaukee Art Museum and as Assistant Director at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago.
“Brian quickly rose to the top of the pool of candidates as a leader who has the right mix of experience, energy and vision to serve as the next director of the Dallas Museum of Art,” said Sharon Young, the DMA’s Board Chairman and co-chair of the executive search committee. “He comes fully equipped with learnings and know-how from the capital project he led in Portland, which will be a tremendous asset as he advances the DMA’s own transformation. We are grateful to Interim Director Tamara Wootton Forsyth, as well as to our Board and leadership team, who have stewarded the Museum with care in this interim period and have progressed plans for the building transformation project in preparation for a new leader to drive the work forward. I’d also like to thank the members of our search committee for their role in vetting a wide range of candidates that ultimately led us to Brian.”
In August 2023, the DMA selected Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos for the transformation of its Edward Larrabee Barnes-designed building, which was the catalyst for a now burgeoning Arts District in the heart of Dallas when it opened in 1984. Since bringing on the architects, the Museum has moved through its project planning phase, contracting the full design team and laying the groundwork for the schematic design phase. Ferriso will be instrumental in leading the Museum through these next phases and bringing the project from concept to realization.
Ferriso received a BA in economics from Bowdoin College, an MA in arts administration from New York University and an MA in art history from the University of Chicago. He is a past trustee and President (2016-2017) of the Association of Art Museum Directors; a trustee of the American Federation of Arts and Chair of its exhibitions committee; and a member of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and CEO, Chief Executives Organization. Ferriso is the recipient of the 2012 Excellency Award from the Foundation for Italian Art and Culture, and a member of the International Council Museum Berggruen Berlin. Ferriso has been published in a number of exhibition catalogues and art publications and has written articles for Curator: The Museum Journal and Museum magazine. He is also a practicing artist, using training that he acquired while studying with Frank Mason of the Art Students League in New York City.