Eleanor Nairne joins the Philadelphia Museum of Art as head of Modern and contemporary art

Eleanor Nairne Photo: Eva Herzog, courtesy the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) has hired Eleanor Nairne as head of the museum’s Modern and contemporary art department. The new position brings together two previously independent departments. Nairne previously served as senior curator at London’s Barbican Art Gallery, where she curated popular exhibitions of works by Alice Neel, Lee Krasner and Jean-Michel Basquiat (the most popular show in the museum's history), among others. She is also a contributor to this publication.
“I look forward to getting to know Philadelphia—bringing my outsider’s perspective, but also finding out what people in Philadelphia want and what they feel the institution should be doing,” Nairne tells The Art Newspaper. As a research specialist in post-war American art, she notes that even though she has worked numerous times with US museums in the past, this will be her first job working for one. She is particularly excited about “disengaging from hierarchical notions” and “emotionally and psychologically taking the museum off its pedestal”, with a focus on collaboration with museum staff and curators and outside partners in planning new exhibitions and expanding the PMA’s permanent collection.
“Eleanor’s global background and limitless curiosity are what the PMA needs as it moves into its future,” PMA director Sasha Suda said in a statement.
Nairne is the daughter of Sandy Nairne, former longtime director of London’s National Portrait Gallery. Her final exhibition at the Barbican, Julianknxx: Chorus in Rememory of Flight, closes on 11 February. She is scheduled to begin her new position at the PMA later this month.

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