Glenn D. Lowry

Lowry during the June 2002 opening of MoMA Queens.

Glenn David Lowry (born September 28, 1954)^[1] is an American art historian and director of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City since 1995. His initiatives there include strengthening MoMA's contemporary art program and guiding a $900 million capital campaign for the renovation, expansion, and endowment of the Museum. He has lectured and written extensively in support of contemporary art and artists and the role of museums in society, among other topics.

Early years

Lowry was born in 1954 in New York City and raised in Williamstown, Massachusetts.^[2] He graduated from the Holderness School in 1972 and later received a B.A. degree (1976) magna cum laude from Williams College, Williamstown, and M.A. (1978) and Ph.D. (1982) degree in the history of art from Harvard University.^[2]

Career

Lowry began his career in 1983 as the first director of the Joseph and Margaret Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary; he later became curator of Near Eastern Art at the Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art (1984–90).^[3] He was director of the Art Gallery of Ontario from 1990 to 1995.

In February 1999, Lowry and Alanna Heiss, former director of the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, initiated the merger of their two organizations.^[2]

Other roles

Lowry is a board member of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and a former board member of Judd Foundation. He is a member of the Williams College Board of Trustees, is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and serves on the advisory council of the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University.^[2] He is also a Steering Committee Member for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. In 2004, the French government honored Lowry with the title of Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Personal life

Between 1995 and 2003, the New York Fine Arts Support Trust paid Lowry $5.35 million in addition to compensation supplied by the museum, which in 2005 consisted of salary, bonus and benefits of $1.28 million; the trust had been created by MoMA as part of the effort to recruit Lowry to take over the museum in 1995.^[4] The trust fund was created by David Rockefeller and Agnes Gund, who made the payments "at the request of and for the benefit of the museum";^[4] Lowry and his wife Susan, a Montreal-born landscape architect, live rent-free in a $6-million apartment located in MoMA's residential tower^[5] and purchased by the New York Fine Arts Support Trust in 2004.^[4][6]

Publications

• The Museum of Modern Art in This Century. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. 2009.
• Designing the New Museum of Modern Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. 2004.
• MOMA Highlights: 325 Works from The Museum of Modern Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. 2002.
• with Michael Brand, eds., Fatehpur-Sikri: A Sourcebook. Cambridge, MA: The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1985.
• "Time Magazine:" November 1989, Pg. 36. "Hello World."

Footnotes

1. U.S. Public Records Index Vol 1 & 2 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 2010.
2. MoMA Director Glenn Lowry to Discuss Sculptures at Spring Neighborhood Day Tomorrow, a May 18, 2001 article from The Rockefeller University News
3. "Glenn Lowry". Charlie Rose. May 25, 2001. Retrieved 2011-12-05.
4. New York Times, 2007: Donors Sweetened Director's Pay At MoMA, a February 2007 article from The New York Times
5. Commune plus one, a December 2011 article by James Panero from The New Criterion
6. ABRAMOVITCH, INGRID (17 May 2011). "SHORTLIST: GLENN D. LOWRY -12 things MoMA's director can't live without". Elle Decor (New York). Retrieved 28 March 2016.

External links

• MoMA website
• Time Out New York, 2008: Q&A: Glenn Lowry, MoMA Director
• It's Good to be the MoMA Director, from New York magazine (February 16, 2007)