Whitney Chief Curator Kim Conaty Named Director of Dartmouth's Hood Museum

Kim Conaty, chief curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, has been named the eighth director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. She takes up the post in October.

Conaty succeeds John Stomberg, who holds the formal title Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director and has led the Hood since 2015. Stomberg announced he would step down, and Dartmouth launched a national search for his successor — a search still listed as ongoing as recently as mid-July, when the student newspaper The Dartmouth reported that the leadership transition had been extended. The appointment of Conaty, announced on 26 August, ends that search.

The Hood Museum of Art, located on the Dartmouth campus in Hanover, New Hampshire, opened in 1985 and houses a collection that spans millennia — from ancient artefacts to contemporary American art. The museum underwent a $50 million expansion and renovation, a project that reshaped its galleries and public spaces.

Conaty arrives from one of the most prominent positions in American curatorial work. As chief curator at the Whitney — the institution best known for its survey of American art and its roster of contemporary exhibitions — she oversaw the museum's curatorial programme and exhibition planning. Her move to a university museum shifts her from a major New York institution to a college-affiliated collection with a different mission and audience.

University museums occupy a particular niche in the art world: they serve students and faculty as teaching resources alongside their public-facing role as exhibition spaces. The Hood is among the most significant of these in the United States, with holdings that include Native American, African, and Pacific Islands works alongside European and American paintings.

Stomberg agreed to remain in post through early August while the search continued, according to The Dartmouth. That bridging arrangement covered the gap between the end of the spring academic term and the naming of his successor.

ARTnews reported Conaty's appointment on 26 August, the same day Dartmouth published the announcement on its official news site. No further details about Conaty's immediate plans for the museum were included in the announcement.

For the Hood, the appointment brings a curator with experience at a major New York museum to an institution that has invested heavily in its physical infrastructure. For Conaty, it is a move from curatorial leadership to directorship — from shaping exhibitions to shaping an institution.