Susan Krane Announces Departure

Susan Krane, director of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art [SMoCA] and vice president of the Scottsdale Cultural Council since 2001, has announced that she will leave her position after the Museum's fall opening reception on October 4, 2008 to accept the position of The Oshman Executive Director at the San Jose Museum of Art, California. Ms. Krane has served as SMoCA's director for seven years. SMoCA will seek an interim director while there is a national search for a new director.

"I am honored to have worked with the dedicated members of the SMoCA Board and the Museum's amazing professional staff over the years. It's been a fulfilling and exciting journey. With the support and generosity of our family of donors, we have together furthered the vision of the Museum's founders. The Museum fulfills a unique, forward-looking role in the Valley's cultural community, with great momentum as it enters its tenth year. I am most grateful to our colleagues and supporters for their participation in projects that have ranged from the expected to the exploratory. No matter how wild an idea may have been early on, they were there to help it take root. I thank the community for becoming part of a thoughtful dialog about new ideas, emerging artists and new approaches to art at SMoCA-for sharing opportunities for creative thinking and inspiration, for which there is such great need in this world."

"On behalf of the Board of Trustees and all of us at the Scottsdale Cultural Council (SCC) we thank Susan Krane for her uncompromising leadership of SMoCA. She has elevated the national stature of the Museum and made it into a nationally recognized champion of emerging contemporary artists, photographers, architects and designers through her innovative exhibitions and interpretation." said William Banchs, president and CEO of the SCC. "We wish her continued success in San Jose as we work to perpetuate her legacy."

Under Ms. Krane's guidance, the Museum has greatly accelerated its exhibitions program, now organizing close to seventy percent of its offerings, and presents nearly 100 public education programs annually. During Krane's tenure, SMoCA has organized fifty-one exhibitions; expanded its architecture and design activities; received three prestigious grants from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, Peter Norton Family Foundation L'Oreal, Merrill Lynch, RBC Dain Rauscher, Infiniti, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Wells Fargo, and the Bruce and Diane Halle Foundation. Its dedicated staff has more than doubled. Donations to the collection since her arrival in 2001 are valued at more than $3 million. She has provided a solid foundation for the Museum's continued professional momentum and growing national profile.

During her time at SMoCA, Krane oversaw and curated many memorable exhibitions at the Museum, including Lesley Dill: A Ten Year Survey; Philip C. Curtis: The Watercolors; Pioneering Spirits: modern and contemporary art from area collections; Let's Walk West: Brad Kahlhamer; Modern(ist) Love: The Dorothy Lincoln- Smith and Harvey K. Smith Collection; Good Form: the Goldschmidt Collection of (small-scale) Sculpture; Flip a Strip (an international architectural competition this fall) and the spring 2009 exhibition, At the Crossroads of American Photography: Callahan, Siskind, Sommer.