A new leader is taking over at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester.
Jordana Pomeroy will step in as the museum’s director and CEO on Sept 1. The Currier has been operating with an interim director, Karen Graham, as its former director Alan Chong stepped down last April after nearly seven years in the position.
Pomeroy has spent more than three decades in the museum world, including running the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at the Florida International University in Miami. She also spent time as the senior curator at National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington. She said that experience made her interested in featuring the voices and reputations of women and other marginalized groups that other people have spoken for throughout centuries.
She said the board at the Currier also seemed invested in that mission.
“The trustees speak very genuinely about their desire for equity, and that struck me as something that came from a deep place,” Pomeroy said. “This is an old museum with deep roots, and they would like to see change in that direction.”
Pomeroy said she’s interested in seeing the Currier continue to embrace the surrounding community and has spent time expanding audience reach for other art institutions. She’s considering having free admission days and occasional nightly hours to bring audiences in at times that are more convenient to their lives.
“That's something that would be, top of my list – to try to find a partnership in that way to underwrite admission,” Pomeroy said.
As she gets started in the role, she’s looking to figure out what the museum looks like to other people, continuing the museum's connections with current funders and considering those that are waiting to see what the museum will be.
Pomeroy is also interested in getting to know civic leaders in Manchester and discovering the role the Currier can play in the city’s growth, and as a means to embrace the surrounding community.
“I haven't seen anybody in my larger museum networks who's not trying in some manner to think about that,” Pomeroy said. “I would really say that it's kind of a great opportunity, since it's the only public art museum in New Hampshire to think about all of New Hampshire as the community.”
While familiar with the New England area, Pomeroy said she is also looking forward to getting to know the Granite State. She said she wants to consider working with other New Hampshire art institutions to consider how the museum can reflect the broader state.
As she was considering the position, Pomeroy said she stopped by the Currier to check out its exhibits in person. Given her background in 18th and 19th century European art, she was struck by a Hendrik Goltzius painting on display titled “Helen of Troy.”
“It's very erotic, it's very beautiful,” Pomeroy describes. “The sitter is gorgeous and she's done up with all these jewels, and her hair is in this crazy, crazy fashion, and it's just – to me it struck me as, like, you could tell stories based on that one painting.”
