Allentown Art Museum Names Executive Director
November 20, 2007
Allentown, PA
—Today, Gary L. Millenbruch, president of the Allentown Art Museum, announced that the Museum’s board of trustees has appointed Gregory J. Perry as the Museum’s Priscilla Payne Hurd Executive Director. Perry will assume his new post, vacated by David R. Brigham in July of this year, on January 15, 2008.
Perry comes to the Allentown Art Museum from the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he has served as director since 2002. The Zimmerli is one of the largest university art museums in the United States, boasting 35,000 square feet of exhibition space and a collection numbering 50,000 works of art with strengths in 19th- and 20th-century European and American art. During Perry’s tenure, the museum organized exhibitions that traveled abroad, presenting major shows on modern and contemporary art including American Photorealism, Indian abstract and new media art, early 20th-century Modernism, and photography. These projects regularly involved Rutgers faculty as well as members of local constituents including the Indian, Hispanic and Hungarian communities. Perry’s outreach activities resulted in the highest attendance in the Zimmerli’s history in each of the last several years as well as a doubling of K-12 student audiences. He increased fundraising and revenue at the Museum by 85%, and in so doing reversed a trend of operating deficits, posting surpluses in each of his five years as director. Perry correspondingly increased the Museum’s operating budget by 40 percent, and was also responsible for securing three of the largest combined gifts of artwork and cash ever to go to the Zimmerli.
Millenbruch said, “We are very fortunate to have been able to attract and hire Greg since he is a highly qualified individual with the talent, capabilities, and experience to take the Museum to a new level in a way that builds on its past, and is consistent with the Museum’s mission, vision, and strategy for going forward.”
An important part of that strategy is the Museum’s plan to significantly expand and modernize its present facility and approximately double the size of its endowment.
On the announcement of the position Perry stated, “I am very excited and honored to have the opportunity to lead the Allentown Art Museum at this moment in its history. It is an institution with first-rate collections, highly engaging programs and the support of a strong and active community. I look forward to working with the board, staff and community leaders to build on these strengths and take the Museum to the next stage, marked by the addition of a brand new facility. The new building will bring the Museum a higher national and international profile, which will in turn benefit the people of the Lehigh Valley. My wife and I look forward to becoming a part of the community in the Valley and taking part in all it has to offer.”
Prior to his tenure at the Zimmerli, Perry held various development positions at The Art Institute of Chicago, where he gained experience with major gifts, government relations, exhibition administration, and raising funds for capital projects. This experience pushed him to the top of the candidate pool for the Allentown Art Museum’s search committee. Museum trustees Scott Pidcock and Joanne Barnette chaired the search committee. “The Allentown Art Museum’s stature and potential attracted applicants of the highest caliber nationally, in several cases from appreciably larger museums,” stated Pidcock. “The search committee was unanimous in its enthusiasm for Greg Perry and confident that Greg’s leadership as executive director will further enhance the Museum’s distinction, both regionally and beyond.”
Barnette commented, “The Allentown Art Museum has achieved a lot of success over the last several years and now has good momentum. As the Museum transitions to the next level with its planned expansion, we are very fortunate to have attracted and hired Greg Perry. He has demonstrated strong leadership skills and broad museum experience. I firmly believe that Greg will be a huge asset to the Museum and to our community.”
Perry earned an M.A. in modern art history, theory, and criticism in 2004 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, with the thesis, “Art-Historical Initiation and the Aesthetic Experience.” He also holds a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law, where he was a member of the school’s Law Review, and a B.A. in art history (with distinction) from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Perry and his wife, Sue, an art historian, will be relocating to the Lehigh Valley region.
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