Ian Wardropper Named Next Director of The Frick Collection

Today, the Board of Trustees of The Frick Collection announced the appointment of Ian Bruce Wardropper as the next Director of the institution. Mr. Wardropper, currently Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Chairman, Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will take up the post as of October 3, 2011, with the retirement of the Frick's Director of eight years, Anne L. Poulet. Wardropper will be responsible for the overall vision of The Frick Collection, which includes the Frick Art Reference Library. Comments Margot Bogert, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, "We are delighted to welcome Ian Wardropper to The Frick Collection as its next Director. He comes to the institution with a significant and nuanced combination of experience as a scholar and curator in areas that relate beautifully to the holdings of the Frick. As an administrator over large collections and staffs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and previously at the Art Institute of Chicago, Ian Wardropper played an increasingly involved role-- along with Trustees, Director, and Development colleagues-- in the fundraising efforts required of large-scale projects, among them the multi-million dollar renovation of the former institution's Wrightsman Galleries in 2006-07. His top-down involvement in such successful and well-received initiatives, his relationships with collectors and donors, and his appreciation for the high standards and values espoused by the Frick, inspire great confidence in us today as we share this wonderful news."

Adds Wardropper, "Since my earliest years as an art history graduate student in New York, The Frick for me has represented the highest standards of art display, research, and programs as well as the ideal institutional size in which to experience them. Decades later, it maintains this exemplary role, while expanding an impressive exhibition program, producing a rich body of publications and educational offerings, and furthering the Library's already rich research initiatives and resources. With all of these observations in mind, I embrace the opportunity to join the Frick as its Director, all the more so, as I have found great satisfaction over the years in nurturing and supporting the activities of departmental and museum colleagues and in serving the larger agenda and mission. I look forward to the task of maintaining institutional excellence and the challenge of renewing its programs."

For more information, contact us at mediarelations@frick.org.