Dear Friends,
After five wonderful years, I am so pleased to be leaving my position as executive director knowing that CIMA is thriving. CIMA’s 2017-18 exhibition season introduced the fantastical work of Alberto Savinio to new audiences, garnering serious critical engagement from The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Artforum, Art in America, and many others. Savinio’s multi-faceted creative practice offered us the chance to expand our programming into the realms of literature, theater, and music, collaborating with a host of brilliant speakers and performers, including Roberto Calasso with Jonathan Galassi and with Lila Azam Zanganeh, Robert Storr with Lawrence Weschler, Isabella Rossellini and Yasmine Ergas, Luciano Chessa and Luca Valentino, Ruggero Savinio, and the late Irving Sandler.
Enjoy videos of the programs on CIMA’s Vimeo channel:
It has been an incredible privilege to work with President and Founder Laura Mattioli to help launch and shape this special place, and I’m very proud of all we have accomplished in such a short time. Since CIMA opened to the public in February 2014, with the Fortunato Depero Study Day, we have:
- Mounted five exhibitions
- Supported 25 pre- and post-doctoral fellows
- Built a dedicated community of members and organized dozens of members programs
- Welcomed over 20,000 visitors for intimate tours led by our impressive fellows
- Organized 11 Study Days and more than 120 other programs
- Launched two new associations: the SoHo Arts Network (SAN), connecting downtown nonprofit arts spaces, and the New York Area Art History Fellows Network, connecting museums that host visiting art history scholars
- Produced a stunning facsimile of Fortunato Depero’s 1927 “Bolted Book”
- Received a number of grants, including most recently from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, which will ensure the online publication of the first issue of CIMA’s long-planned journal
Fostering an atmosphere of scholarly exchange and contemplation, along with developing a rich body of creative programming around exhibitions of extraordinary quality, has been among the highlights of my career. But most of all, I’m grateful for the opportunity to have met and worked with so many remarkable people. Thank you for the many ways that you have supported, engaged, and collaborated with me at CIMA. You’ve made it a wonderfully vibrant place. With the appointment of Emma Lewis as the new executive director, I know I leave my position in good hands. I look forward to watching CIMA continue to grow.
With gratitude,
Heather
