One glance at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s timeline, and it’s clear: Change is evident. Including Michael Darling’s appointment last summer as chief curator, more than two thirds of the curatorial department has turned over. Director Madeleine Grynsztejn says it’s typical: “It’s common for museums to experience changes in their curatorial departments,” Grynsztejn said. “In hiring Michael Darling, I knew he would be setting the groundwork for some incredible new changes.” Among them: a re-imagined floor plan, a new institutional identity and new staff.
The building at 220 E. Chicago Ave. has never successfully functioned as it was intended: temporary shows in the main floor galleries and permanent collection highlights upstairs. Over the course of the next year, the situation will be righted with the introduction of permanent collection exhibits on the main floor, and roomy rotating shows upstairs. “Things have evolved pretty much driven by the art,” says curator Lynne Warren. Starting now, it becomes official.
** 1965 **
1967: Museum of Contemporary Art opens to the public at 237 E. Ontario St., with Jan van der Marck as its first director.
** 1970 **
** 1975 **
1979: Lynne Warren joins curatorial staff.
** 1980 **
** 1985 **
** 1990 **
1992: At its 25th anniversary gala, designs are unveiled for a new building at 220 E. Chicago Ave., designed by Berlin architect Josef Paul Kleihues.
1994: Dominic Molon, hired as a security guard in 1989, joins curatorial staff.
** 1995 **
1996: The MCA’s new building and sculpture garden opens with a 24-hour public preview on the summer solstice, hosting more than 25,000 visitors
1998: Robert Fitzpatrick is named director and chief executive officer
1998: Tricia Van Eck joins curatorial staff.
1999: Julie Rodrigues Widholm, formerly in visitor services, joins curatorial staff.
1999: Elizabeth Smith is named James W. Alsdorf chief curator; Francesco Bonami is hired as the Manilow senior curator.
** 2000 **
** 2005 **
2008: Madeleine Grynsztejn is named Pritzker director, the first female director, replacing Fitzpatrick; Bonami becomes curator-at-large; Michael Green, hired in 2005, becomes curatorial assistant.
2009: Chief curator Smith departs; Molon is named interim chief curator.
** 2010 **
2009: Curator Warren marks 30 years on the job.
July 2010: Michael Darling begins as James W. Alsdorf chief curator.
August 2010: Curator Molon departs.
April 2011: Naomi Beckwith is named curator, replacing Molon.
May 2011: Associate curator Van Eck departs; Darling reconfigures the department.
Mid-June 2011: Senior curator announcement expected, filling three-year vacancy created when Bonami left the position.
August 2011: Curatorial assistant Green scheduled to depart.
