HEAD OF FOLK ART MUSEUM MOVES ON
Khristaan Villela, the executive director of the Museum of International Folk Art, has been hired as an associate director at Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He begins his post as head of Dissemination and External Affairs this summer.
“During his tenure, Dr. Villela has increased the visibility of the museum, while forging new partnerships within and beyond the department that have benefited New Mexicans across the state,” said Debra Garcia y Griego, cabinet secretary of New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
Villela is also chair of Arts and Science for the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, a role in which he oversees multiple other state museums. He was the founding director of the Thaw Art History Center at the College of Santa Fe, where he organized an undergraduate art history department focused on the Art of the Americas. Villela also taught art history at the University of New Mexico and the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. He has served as consulting curator for exhibitions at the Miho Museum, the GRI, the New Mexico History Museum and Palace of the Governors, and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.
“The GRI is a leader in the preservation, creation, and dissemination of the knowledge about the world’s visual culture,” said Villela, who has led the Museum of International Folk Art since 2016. “I look forward to working together with the GRI team to unify the voices of the scholarship, exhibitions, library, publications, and public programs at the institute and to increase awareness of them among audiences in Los Angeles, elsewhere in the U.S., and globally.”
An interim executive director will be named while the Board of Regents for the Museum of New Mexico undertakes an executive search. internationalfolkart .org