FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CHRYSLER MUSEUM DIRECTOR WILLIAM HENNESSEY TO RETIRE IN OCTOBER 2014
Accomplishments Include Major Building Expansion
and Visitor-Focused Interpretive Initiative
NORFOLK, Va. – (September 24, 2013) – Chrysler Museum of Art Director and President
William Hennessey announced that he will retire from his position on October 3, 2014.
Hennessey focused the Museum on a commitment to serving the needs of visitors, adopting a
“free to all” admission policy, and introducing the Chrysler’s noted Gallery Host program. Under
Hennessey’s leadership, the Museum raised more than $80 million through two capital
campaigns, which strengthened the Chrysler’s operating endowment and supported the creation
of the hugely successful Glass Studio.
Hennessey is currently overseeing a major expansion and renovation of the Chrysler that will
showcase the Museum’s nationally recognized collection and support new exhibition strategies
and educational programming. The expansion will be completed in April 2014.The Board of
Trustees, in accordance with the Museum’s strategic plan, has established a search committee
to identify Hennessey’s successor. Lewis Webb, vice-chairman of the Chrysler Board of
Trustees, will lead the effort.
“For nearly two decades, Bill has provided the inspirational leadership and strategic vision that
have built the Chrysler into the nationally renowned museum that it is today,” said Peter
Meredith, chairman of the Chrysler Board of Trustees. “We are incredibly fortunate for his many
years of service, and we are deeply grateful that he will continue to lead the museum through
the completion of its expansion and renovation.”
“It’s been an honor and privilege to work over the past 17 years with the Chrysler Museum’s
truly extraordinary staff and board,” said Hennessey. “As the museum prepares to complete the
largest renovation and expansion in its history and launch a robust new changing exhibition
program, now is a perfect time for the next generation of directorship to begin. I look forward to
watching new and exciting things unfold at the Chrysler—and am very proud to have helped
ensure the Hampton Roads community is served by an arts institution of truly national caliber.”
Working with his colleagues, Hennessey championed the Museum’s mission of “enriching and
transforming lives” through innovative programming and new thinking about what museums can
and should be in the 21st century. During his tenure the Museum made significant additions to
its collection and presented a dynamic range of special exhibitions that attracted large and
diverse audiences. Hennessey also nurtured partnerships with educational, cultural, civic, and
business organizations across Hampton Roads. Under Hennessey’s leadership, the Museum’s
culture of service, its innovative engagement with visitors, and its programming have become
recognized as national models for the field.
About William J. Hennessey
Hennessey became the director of the Chrysler Museum in March 1997. Before moving to
Hampton Roads, he was director of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, a position he
held for eight years. Earlier in his career, he directed the University of Kentucky Art Museum
and the Vassar College Art Gallery. Hennessey also taught art history at each of those
universities and held curatorial posts at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Spencer
Museum of Art at the University of Kansas.
Hennessey, who recently turned 66, holds a bachelor of arts degree in art history from
Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He studied management at the
Columbia University and University of Michigan schools of business and has held a prestigious
Ford Foundation Museum Curatorial Fellowship at the Worcester Art Museum.
Over the past 36 years, he has published numerous exhibition catalogues, essays, articles, and
reviews and is a frequent lecturer, speaking most often on issues involving the ways that art,
people, and museums interact. In 2012, LEAD Hampton Roads selected Hennessey as the
region’s 2012 Visionary Leader. Under Hennessey’s leadership, the Chrysler was one of only
six museums chosen for inclusion in Anne Bergeron and Beth Tuttle’s Magnetic: The Art and
Science of Engagement (American Alliance of Museums Press, 2013). Their research highlights
American institutions that demonstrate powerful internal alignment and compelling vision to
attract the crucial resources for success.
About the Chrysler Museum of Art
The Chrysler Museum of Art is one of America’s most distinguished mid-sized art museums,
with a nationally recognized collection of more than 30,000 objects, including one of the great
glass collections in America, and a new Glass Studio. The core of the Chrysler’s collection was
given to the Museum by Walter Chrysler, Jr., an avid art collector who donated thousands of
objects from his private collection to the Museum. In the years since Chrysler’s death in 1988,
the Museum has dramatically expanded its collection and extended its ties with the Norfolk
community. The Museum now has rapidly growing collections, especially of contemporary glass
and 21st-century works. In 2011, the Chrysler opened a state-of-the-art glass studio with a 560pound capacity glass furnace, full hot shop, a flameworking studio, nine annealing ovens, and a
coldworking area. In addition to its main building and Glass Studio, the Chrysler Museum of Art
administers two historic houses in downtown Norfolk.
The Chrysler Museum of Art campus is located at One Memorial Place, in Norfolk, Va. While the
Museum is closed during construction, the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio and its two historic
houses are open. The Glass Studio, at 745 Duke St., Norfolk, is open Wednesday to Sunday
with free glass demonstrations at noon. The Willoughby-Baylor House, 601 E. Freemason St.,
and the Moses Myers House, 323 E. Freemason St., Norfolk are open Wednesday through
Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. throughout 2013 Admission is free at these venues. For more
information on the Chrysler Museum of Art, visit chrysler.org.
Media Contacts:
A. J. Fox
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
(212) 671-5157
afox@resnicowschroeder.com
Cindy Mackey
Chrysler Museum of Art
(757) 754-4553
cmackey@chrysler.org