The following is a text-only announcement from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). An HTML version can be read on the agency's Web site at http://www.imls.gov/news/2008/060208.shtm.

 

A Statement from Anne-Imelda Radice, Director of IMLS, on the loss of Anne D’Harnoncourt, Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

WASHINGTON, DC (June 2, 2008)— The Institute of Museum and Library Services is greatly saddened by the sudden loss of friend of the agency and the arts, Anne D’Harnoncourt.

 

Museums were in Ms. D’Harnoncourt’s blood: as the daughter of Rene d'Harnoncourt, former director of New York's Museum of Modern Art, she grew up in the company of famous and influential artists, including Jasper Johns, Marcel Duchamp, and Mark Rothko. After graduating with a B.A. from Radcliffe College and an M.A. from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, she launched her own outstanding career in the museum world.

 

Since 1997, she had served as both Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, one of the few women in the art community to hold such a prestigious museum directorship. Under her guidance, the Philadelphia Museum of Art flourished. Her contributions to the museum and to the art world are wide-reaching, and include her cultivation of a number of the museum’s remarkable collections and her efforts to bring world-class exhibitions to the institution.

 

The breadth and scope of Anne's accomplishments are truly remarkable, and she will live on in the museum she loved and served, and in the hearts and minds of the art community. The Institute extends its deepest regrets to her husband and colleague, Joseph Rishel, and to her family. She will be greatly missed.

 

 

IMLS Press Contacts

202-653-4632

Jeannine Mjoseth, [log in to unmask]

 

 

 

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