FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CHRYSLER MUSEUM OF ART ANNOUNCES ERIK H. NEIL
AS NEW DIRECTOR
Head of the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Md., To Succeed
Longtime Chrysler Director William Hennessey Upon Retirement in October 2014
NORFOLK, Va. – (July 2, 2014) – The Chrysler Museum of Art Board of Trustees is pleased to
announce the selection of Dr. Erik H. Neil as its next director and president. The board
unanimously approved his appointment on June 26, 2014. Neil, 50, is director of the Academy
Art Museum in Easton, Maryland, where he has served since 2010.
“Erik Neil comes to us with a strong sense of the
essential role a museum plays in its community and a
history of deep personal engagement in each place
he has served,” outgoing board chair Peter Meredith
said. “He is a perfect fit for the Chrysler, given our
focus on serving the Hampton Roads area.”
“Through our incredible collection, curators and staff,
board, and donors, the Chrysler Museum has always
been an active participant and leader in the national
conversation about art and museums,” said Lewis
Webb, head of the Museum’s executive search
committee who now chairs the board. “Erik Neil is a
leader who loves art. He is the just the right person to
continue to nurture and coordinate our efforts for
even more impact,” Webb said.
Neil will assume leadership duties at the Chrysler on
October 6 as part of a seamless transition plan. Last
fall, current director and president Bill Hennessey, 66,
announced his plan to retire from the Museum on
October 3. He has served as director of the Chrysler
for 17 years, the longest standing director in the
Museum’s 81-year history.
Erik H. Neil will become the seventh director of
the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Va., in
October 2014. Photo by Annie Raymond
“With his strong art history background and solid
management experience, Erik Neil is an inspired
choice to lead the Chrysler into its next chapter. I
eagerly look forward to working with him to ensure a smooth transition,” Hennessey said.
“I am very excited to come to the Chrysler and build upon the great work done by Bill
Hennessey, the trustees, and the Museum staff,” Neil said. “The chance to work with such an
outstanding collection and to be creative with it, to open up doors to new audiences is very
appealing,” he added.
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“I am looking forward to living in Norfolk. It’s rare to have an institution of the Chrysler’s stature
in a community of this size. I hope to be able to leverage that stature to see that the Chrysler
Museum has both great local impact and a broader stage of influence.”
About Erik Neil
Neil is known in the museum world for the breadth of his artistic interests, strong management
skills, a genial personality, and a collaborative approach to work and leadership, with a common
goal of making the good even better.
Having worked in both large and small museums gives Neil a broad base of experience. “I will
have the opportunity to work with some immensely bright and talented people here,” he said.
Past and present colleagues laud his intelligence, his transparency, his ability to build
community, and his visionary pragmatism. “As much as I like to be ambitious and
adventuresome, I appreciate sound fiscal responsibility as well,” he said, “and the Chrysler is
known for all of those hallmarks.”
Neil’s accomplishments in the profession demonstrate the common threads that others praise.
Neil began his museum career in 1999 as director of the Newcomb Art Gallery of Tulane
University in New Orleans, where he also served as an adjunct art history professor. Among his
accomplishments at the Newcomb were acclaimed in-house and traveling exhibitions, including
the commissioning and national tour of a new work by Carrie Mae Weems. He also was praised
for improved strategic planning and growth; deficit reduction; funding and budget growth; and
assuring the safety of the collection in the face of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
In 2006, after a short stint as director of exhibition and programs at the American Federation of
Arts in New York, Neil became Executive Director of the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, N.Y.
There he led a nine-month, $1.5 million complete museum modernization and initiated its
reaccreditation process with the American Association of Museums. He also revamped the
exhibition program to focus on modern and contemporary art, with spotlights on regional artists,
photography, and design. Fiscally, he expanded the Heckscher’s financial capacity through new
grants, donations, and fundraising events.
Since 2010, as director of the Academy Art Museum, Neil has been credited with revitalizing a
small but solid institution. Under his leadership, the museum reorganized its staff and prioritized
strategic planning. Neil focused exhibitions and collection accessions on both known and new
artists, including those deemed regionally important. The museum acquired works by Picasso,
Mondrian, Hockney, Ingres, and Goltzius, as well as new holdings in 19th-century photography.
The Academy commissioned a site-specific installation by James Turrell at the same time the
artist had new work on view at venerable institutions such as the MFA Houston and the
Guggenheim. Neil’s passion for community partnerships, especially with Talbot County’s
African-American leadership, led to the establishment of an annual Juneteenth celebration in
the birthplace of the great civil rights leader Frederick Douglass. The museum also has seen a
significant increase in annual appeal giving, membership, art travel, and new grant sources, and
a successful $2 million challenge of gifts, pledges, and planned gifts has grown its endowment.
Neil’s education includes a B.A. (1986) in modern European and American history from
Princeton University, and both a Ph.D. (1995) and M.A. (1991) in the history of art and
architecture from Harvard University. His key academic focus was Italian Renaissance and
Baroque architecture, though his scholarship, fellowships, writing, lecturing, and university
teaching include modern architecture, the history of photography, and contemporary art. He also
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earned a certificate in museum management (2003) from the prestigious Getty Leadership
Institute in Berkeley, Calif., and has pursued leadership and professional development
opportunities through the American Alliance of Museums.
Neil has been married for nearly 25 years to Luisa Adelfio, a sculptor and an exhibiting artist.
The couple has four daughters and two dogs. Among his personal interests are classical and
rock music, running, and films.
About the Executive Search
In anticipation of Hennessey’s retirement announcement, nearly 18 months ago the Chrysler
began the process of seeking a new director, in accordance with the Museum’s strategic plan
updated in 2011. Last fall, Lewis Webb, then board vice chair, began working with an eightmember search committee representative of key Museum and community constituencies.
For the international executive search, the Chrysler hired Development Resources, Inc. of
Arlington, Va. Jennifer Dunlap, president and CEO of the consultancy group, managed the
recruitment effort, as it had for similar searches at the National Gallery of Art, the Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts Foundation, the Walters Museum, and the Mariners’ Museum.
More than 70 candidates applied for the position, and DRI submitted 25 prescreened resumes
to the search committee. Board members narrowed the field to eight applicants to call for more
in-depth, face-to-face interviews. Afterwards, four candidates were invited to the Museum in
spring 2014 for on-site visits with staff leaders and trustees.
“As we focused in tighter and tighter, Erik stood out more and more,” Webb said. When the
search committee presented Neil to the board for consideration as the new director of the
Chrysler, he was “overwhelmingly affirmed” as the best candidate for the job.
Over the next few months, with the ongoing consultancy help of Dunlap and DRI, the Chrysler
has planned a rigorous onboarding process to help initiate Neil to his new staff and board, as
well as officials in Norfolk and the Hampton Roads area, leaders of regional arts organizations,
and his new community.
About William J. Hennessey
Bill Hennessey, 66, became director of the Chrysler Museum of Art in March 1997. Under his
leadership, the Chrysler mounted scores of engaging and popular exhibitions and programs,
continued to strengthen an already impressive collection, earned a coveted four-star rating from
Charity Navigator, and completed two successful Museum expansions, including the creation of
a working glass studio. But assuring the Museum’s culture of service, community engagement,
and focused commitment to its visitors may well be his most lasting legacy. With free general
admission, the introduction of an acclaimed Gallery Host program, and Hennessey’s visionary
thinking about what museums can and should be today, the Chrysler garnered national attention
in 2013 when it was named one of six “magnetic museums” in the United States. Over the next
several months, Hennessey will assist with the transition leading up to his retirement from the
Museum. The Chrysler also plans a series of events to celebrate Hennessey’s accomplishments
and contributions to the museum profession and the Hampton Roads area.
About the Chrysler Museum of Art
The recently expanded Chrysler Museum of Art is one of America’s most distinguished midsized art museums, with a nationally recognized collection of more than 30,000 objects,
including one of the great glass collections in America. The core of the Chrysler’s collection was
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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 full-service glass studio to tie with a 560-pound capacity glass
furnace, a full hot shop, a flameworking studio, nine annealing ovens, and a coldworking shop.
In addition, the Chrysler Museum of Art also administers two historic houses in downtown
Norfolk: the Moses Myers House and the Willoughby-Baylor House.
The Chrysler Museum of Art, One Memorial Place, Norfolk, and its Perry Glass Studio at 745
Duke St., are open to the public Tuesday through Sunday. The Historic Houses on East
Freemason Street are open weekends.
General admission is free at all venues. For more information on the Chrysler Museum of Art,
visit chrysler.org.
Media Contact
Virginia Hilton
The Meridian Group
(757) 340-7425 / (757) 232-2178
Virginia@TheMeridianGroup.com
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