Dallas, TX—November 4, 2024—Today, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) announced that Dr. Agustín Arteaga, The Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art, will step down December 31, 2024. Over the course of his eight-year tenure, Arteaga has led the Museum through pivotal moments in the institution’s history, including navigating the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns; increasing the diversity of visitors and members of the Board of Trustees, expanding the curatorial team and bringing on key staff to the leadership team; curating and presenting important exhibitions at the DMA and in major museums in the Americas and Europe; securing bond funding from the City of Dallas; and spearheading the vision for the DMA’s planned expansion and capital campaign, which launched with an international architecture competition. During Dr. Arteaga’s tenure, a financial reserve fund was also created for the Museum.
Tamara Wootton Forsyth, The Marcus-Rose Family Deputy Director of the DMA, will step in as Interim Director, working closely with Board President Gowri Sharma and Arteaga to ensure a seamless transition. A search committee, led by members of the Board of Trustees, will begin the process of appointing the next Director of the Dallas Museum of Art.
“As the Museum embarks on an expansive transformation project and capital campaign, and considering the significant progress that has been made during my eight years of leading the DMA, working in collaboration with our staff and Board, driven by my passion for art and a strong sense of purpose to serve, I feel it’s the right time to transition and focus on pursuing these passions as a museum leader, curator and scholar,” said Arteaga. “Following an extraordinary response to our international architecture competition to reimagine the DMA, we have now laid the foundation to transform the Museum into one of the most exciting, engaging and visitor-friendly art museums in the world. With this groundwork in place, it is the right moment to hand the reins to the next leader, who will see this monumental multiyear project to fruition and lead the DMA into the future.”
“We are grateful to Agustín for his many contributions to the Dallas Museum of Art, especially during a time of unprecedented challenges,” said Gowri Sharma, President, and Jeff Ellerman, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the DMA. “With a long list of curatorial and programmatic achievements and having put in place a talented leadership team, he is leaving the Museum in a position of strength as we look to the next chapter in the Museum’s trajectory. Our Board looks forward to working with the next leader of the DMA, along with our staff, donors and City partners, to realize the vision created under Agustín’s leadership.”
The Reimagining the Museum initiative emerged from a strategic planning process led by Arteaga in 2020. The plan called for the creation of facilities that will accommodate the DMA’s growing collection, better serve its myriad audiences and create a stronger connection to the surrounding Arts District, which has been transformed dramatically over the 40 years since the DMA opened as its anchor. In 2023 Arteaga led an international architecture competition to create a new vision for the campus. Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos (NSA) was selected from a pool of more than 150 submissions and is now working with DMA leadership and staff to create a design that will transform the Museum. The next phase of this initiative, including unveiling the design and launching a capital campaign, will begin in the near future. Also in 2023, Arteaga and Board leadership worked with the City of Dallas to secure $20 million in bond funds for capital improvements and needed repairs to the City-owned facility.
Throughout Arteaga’s tenure, he has championed a diverse array of blockbuster and critically acclaimed exhibitions that have drawn new audiences to the Museum, beginning with the blockbuster México 1900–1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco, and the Avant- Garde (2017), which he also curated. Additional exhibition highlights include The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana (2018); Ida O’Keeffe: Escaping Georgia’s Shadow (2018-19); Berthe Morisot, Woman Impressionist (2019-20); Speechless: different by design (2019-20); Van Gogh and the Olive Groves (2021-22); Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity (2022-23); Matthew Wong: The Realm of Appearances (2022-23); Abraham Ángel: Between Wonder and Seduction (2023-24); The Impressionist Revolution from Monet to Matisse (2024-26); Cecily Brown: Themes and Variations (2024); and Frida: Beyond the Myth (2024-25), curated by Arteaga. He also reinvigorated the permanent collection, with a reinstallation of the European Art galleries (2019) and the Indigenous Arts of the Americas galleries (2023). Scholarly publications also grew significantly during Arteaga’s administration, with 20 collection and exhibition catalogues published by the DMA.
Arteaga expanded the curatorial team and made key hires, including Sarah Schleuning, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design; Michelle Rich, Arts of the Americas curator; contemporary art curators Vivian Li and Ade Omotosho; and Emily Friedman, the DMA’s first full-time works on paper curator in a newly established works on paper department. In 2023 he created a new position, Chief Curatorial and Research Officer, and appointed to the role Dr. Nicole R. Myers, who also serves as the DMA’s Barbara Thomas Lemmon Senior Curator of European Art. He also created a new, endowed curatorial position for Latin American art along with a dedicated acquisition fund to increase holdings in this area.
Arteaga also spearheaded programmatic and education initiatives designed to bring new and more diverse audiences to the DMA, including launching the Bilingual Initiative in 2017 to ensure all exhibitions' interpretation materials are presented in both English and Spanish. He created a partnership with the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum at The University of Texas at Dallas to share works from the DMA’s collection with new audiences in the suburbs of Dallas. The DMA also recently launched a new series, Meet Me at the Museum, featuring three different types of experiences—Brunch, Jazz, and After Hours at the Museum—designed to foster opportunities for the community to connect with each other and with the Museum.
Interim Director Tamara Wootton Forsyth was appointed Deputy Director by Dr. Arteaga in 2018 and has held a number of positions at the DMA over the past 23 years. During this time, she has played a critical role in the management of departments across the institution, overseeing many of the Museum’s key initiatives, including development and implementation of the DMA’s current strategic plan.