Dallas Museum of Art names Maxwell Anderson as new director

Anderson has spent 20 years as a museum director.

Maxwell L. Anderson, new director at the Dallas Museum of Art

DALLAS — The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) announced Thursday that Maxwell L. Anderson will replace Bonnie Pitman as the director of the museum. Pitman retired June 1, 2011 because of health issues.

Anderson will leave his post as director and CEO of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) to join the DMA staff on January 9, 2012.

Anderson is called "one of the leading technological innovators in the museum field" in a press release, in part because of the IMA Lab he launched in 2010, which helped to "create and disseminate open source tools for use across the museum field" and generated $500,000 in revenue for the museum.

Other accomplishments include:

Anderson has served for more than 20 years as a museum director. Since assuming his position at the IMA in 2006, Anderson has added over $30 million to the museum’s endowment through gifts and pledges; built a significant international exhibition program; resumed a free general admission policy; more than doubled attendance to reach some 450,000 visitors annually; and led the IMA to become the first museum in the country to achieve the EPA’s Energy Star certification for its environmentally responsible practices. During his tenure, the IMA also launched innovative web-based tools to engage the public, such as a dedicated video channel for art and artists known as ArtBabble, as well as a Dashboard of real-time statistics and a deaccessioning database on its website to promote transparency, both of which have become new models for the museum field. In 2009, the IMA received the National Medal of Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor for museums.

“We are extremely fortunate to have secured someone of Max’s multiple talents and experience to lead the DMA,” said Cindy Rachofsky, chair of the Director Search Committee. “He is a scholar and a populist, and has created programs that have lasting value and meaning to institutions and the many constituencies they serve.”