OBSERVER: Comings and Goings: The Shed’s New CEO and More
Meredith Hodges and curator Magdalena Moskalewicz are among the insiders stepping into new roles.
Summer is often a slow season in the art world but these days, it can be pretty hot. Group shows and dance events abound, artworks change hands and of course, insiders across artforms leave old titles behind to step into new positions. What follows are some of the most notable role changes recently announced across cultural spheres.
Meredith Hodges announced as The Shed’s CEO
Hodges, the current executive director of the Boston Ballet, will succeed founding CEO Alex Poots as chief executive of New York arts nonprofit The Shed starting in October. The challenges she’ll face are manifold, given The Shed’s post-Covid financial struggles and its slow-burn journey toward cultural relevance. Hodges will oversee the organization’s finances and creative vision, as well as audience expansion and community engagement. “I’m passionate about audience-building and about access,” she said in a statement, “and I’m thrilled at the possibilities inherent in the Shed’s mission, its physical space, and its art.”
The Harvard Business School alum has led the Boston Ballet since 2014. During her tenure, the company’s endowment grew by more than $24 million dollars and attendance rose to its peak of 170,000 in the 2022/2023 season. Prior to leading the Boston Ballet, Hodges was the executive director of the contemporary Brooklyn dance company Gallim Dance and worked at MoMA.
Magdalena Moskalewicz named FRONT International Triennial’s permanent Chief Curator
Moskalewicz is an art historian, curator, professor and author whose work includes exploring history and identity through collaboration with living artists. In the newly created position of Chief Curator, she will be responsible for developing the artistic voice and curatorial standards of all FRONT programming and collaborating with FRONT artistic directors on exhibition concepts. “I look forward to realizing bold new approaches to exhibition-making with each triennial’s artistic director and adding depth to the scholarly and curatorial partnerships that are FRONT’s foundation to benefit a wide range of audiences,” Moskalewicz said in a statement.
In addition to teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for seven years, Moskalewicz has served as a visiting curator at the Zachęta—National Gallery of Art in Warsaw and curator of the Polish Pavilion for the 56th edition of La Biennale di Venezia. She has also been an Andrew W. Mellon C-MAP Postdoctoral Fellow at MoMA.
Annabelle Ténèze to head the Louvre-Lens Museum
Currently director of Les Abattoirs, Musee – Frac Occitanie Toulouse, Ténèze will succeed Marie Lavandier to head up the Louvre-Lens Museum—a Louvre satellite institution located 200 kilometers north of Paris—beginning in the fall. The Louvre-Lens, which aims to make masterpieces from the Louvre more accessible to people outside of Paris, celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2022.
Before taking over as head of Les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse, Ténèze was a curator at the Picasso Museum in Paris from 2006 through 2012 and then served as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rochechouart through 2016. At the Abattoirs, she curated several exhibitions focused on artists like Picasso and Niki de Saint Phalle. Later this year, as part of Paris+ par Art Basel, Ténèze will collaborate with the Louvre on an exhibition of public art at the Tuileries Garden.
