People & Places
David Geffen has pledged a historic $150 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, making it the largest single cash gift from an individual in the museum’s history. The commitment goes towards a Peter Zumthor-designed building for the museum’s permanent collection, which will be called the David Geffen Galleries in honor of the extraordinary gift...The Ringling has raised nearly $2 million towards its $5 million goal to preserve the historic residence of John and Mable Ringling. Known as Ca’ d’zan, the 36,000-square-foot winter residence was completed in 1926 and inspired by the couple’s trips to Venice...The Jewish Museum in New York has appointed Darsie Alexander as its chief curator. Norman L. Kleeblatt announced in December 2016 he was leaving the museum after 40 years, and Alexander will begin her tenure in mid-March...Maureen Bray, who has served as director of David Nolan Gallery since 2014, has been named ADAA executive director. The non-profit group is responsible for The Art Show at Park Avenue Armory in New York...Terrence P. Laughlin, Susana Torruella Leval and Amanda Waldron have been added to the Brooklyn Museum’s board of trustees, bringing the total number of trustees to 40...The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced Lauren A. Meserve as the museum’s new senior vice president and chief investment officer. She will take over for Suzanne Brenner, who will leave the institution for Brown Brothers Harriman. Meserve has been with the museum since 2002...Cathleen Chaffee has been named VIA Art Fund’s 2018 curatorial fellow. Chaffee currently serves as the chief curator at the Albright-knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, and plans to use the $15,000 grant to conduct studio visits with artists based in Lebanon, South Africa and Egypt...so the by’s has announced that August Uribe has rejoined the auction house as Vice Chairman, Americas. August worked in Sotheby’s Latin American and Impressionist & Modern
Art departments for over 22 years before joining Phillips auction house in 2014 as Worldwide Co-head of Contemporary Art...Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas has made significant additions to their curatorial staff. Holly Borham has joined the museum as assistant curator of prints and drawings, managing the museum’s collection of more than 15,700 works on paper, and Claire Howard serves as assistant curator of modern and contemporary art...Steven Miller, executive director of Boscobel House and Gardens in Garrison, New York, has announced his retirement. Miller has recently been accepted as a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome, where he will complete a new book about how museums remove collections. The Boscobel has appointed Jennifer Carlquist as acting executive director...Athena Art Finance has joined The Armory Show as a long-term partner. The multi-year partnership will continue through 2020, and will further enable The Armory Show to showcase emerging artists and galleries, stage projects with local and international artists, and inspire dialogue, discovery and patronage of the visual arts.