Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Hires Director of Education
July 11, 2007 – 10:58 am
BENTONVILLE, Ark., July 11, 2007 – An accomplished arts educator with 20 years of experience designing and implementing educational programming for a wide variety of audiences is joining Crystal Bridges Museum of Art. Lynn Berkowitz of Sarasota, Fla., has been hired as the museum’s director of education. Berkowitz will report to Robert G. Workman, Crystal Bridges executive director, and will officially begin her duties on Sept. 4.
Berkowitz comes to Crystal Bridges most recently from Florida State University/The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, where she was education director since 2004. In this leadership role, Berkowitz led the program development and implementation serving all audiences for the Ringling Estate, which includes a museum of art, two circus museums, a historic mansion and theater and 66 acres featuring an accredited rose garden. She also sat on the museum’s board of directors collection and exhibition committee and helped lead the museum’s docent and volunteer councils.
“Education is a primary focus for Crystal Bridges, and we are extremely pleased to have someone of Lynn’s caliber and talent join our leadership team,” said Workman. “As someone focused on the quality of the visitor experience, Lynn will build a program that assures lifelong learning opportunities for the museum visitor and those people we will touch through outreach activities. She is a well respected and recognized education professional in the museum industry. Her track record of developing creative, engaging educational opportunities for students of all ages and from all walks of life is outstanding and will benefit our audiences significantly.”
As director of education, Berkowitz will be a member of the Crystal Bridges senior management team. In her role, she will lead the organization’s planning, development and implementation for all the museum’s education activities. She will help refine the vision for the interpretation of the permanent collection, plan and implement a dynamic interpretive program, proactively promote collaborations within the area’s schools, and work within Northwest Arkansas communities to inform this process with the needs of this area.
“I am thrilled with this opportunity to join Crystal Bridges in such a key position,” said Berkowitz. “This is an incredible project that will touch and engage many audiences locally, regionally and nationally for years to come. We will work hard to envision the needs of each audience and develop programming that will help people experience art in ways that are enjoyable but also meaningful and relevant to their own life experiences.”
Prior to her work at The Ringling Museum, Berkowitz held senior management positions at several museums. In each position as she did at The Ringling Museum, she created and oversaw the implementation of both traditional and non-traditional educational outreach initiatives designed to engage broad audiences with art. Berkowitz was also actively involved in visioning, strategic and long-range planning.
In Tucson, she was the director of education at Tucson Museum of Art, where she developed programming for a complex including a museum, historic homes, art school and ceramics studio. She also was curator of education at The University of Arizona Museum of Art. Before her work in the Tucson area, Berkowitz served as director of education at the Allentown Art Museum in Allentown, Penn. While in Pennsylvania, Berkowitz was an adjunct lecturer at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, a lecturer at Marywood College in Scranton, and served as gallery director for the Luckenbach Mill Gallery of Historic Bethlehem, Inc., in Bethlehem.
Berkowitz has an extensive track record of securing grants and funding for educational programming. She has organized numerous conferences, symposia and is an established presenter and lecturer at arts and educational events nationwide. Throughout her career, Berkowitz has curated 17 special exhibitions focusing on a variety of art and themes. She is active in her field through a number of professional affiliations and special appointments, and she has also been named Outstanding Museum Educator of the Year by the Pennsylvania Art Education Association.
Berkowitz holds a master of fine arts degree with an emphasis in textiles from Tyler School of Art, Temple University; a bachelor of fine arts with an emphasis in furniture design and construction from Kutztown State College; and she attended Philadelphia College of Art studying furniture design and construction.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Crystal Bridges is envisioned as a premier national art institution dedicated to American art and artists. Under construction in Bentonville, Ark., the museum complex will encompass approximately 100,000 square feet of gallery, library, meeting, and office space, a 250-seat indoor auditorium, areas for outdoor concerts and public events, as well as sculpture gardens and walking trails.
Crystal Bridges will house a permanent collection of signature works from American artists along with galleries dedicated to regional art and artists including Native American art. The growing permanent collection is composed of paintings and sculptures from the Colonial period through the modern era. Some announced works in the permanent collection are: the Hudson River School masterwork Kindred Spirits by Asher B. Durand, which is currently on loan to the Brooklyn Museum of Art and was previously on loan to the National Gallery in Washington D.C.; Gilbert Stuart’s George Washington (The Constable-Hamilton Portrait), on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Portrait of Professor Benjamin H. Rand, on loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Jasper Cropsey’s The Backwoods of America, on loan to the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City; and the most extensive surviving group of Colonial American portraiture, the Levy-Franks family paintings, on loan to The Jewish Museum in New York City.
Crystal Bridges takes its name from a natural spring on the museum’s wooded site as well as the unique glass-and-wood building design created by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie. The 100-acre site of the museum complex and cultural center is located within walking distance of the Bentonville town square. The project is scheduled to open in 2009. For more information about Crystal Bridges, visit www.crystalbridges.org.
