Story highlights Kelly Corrigan has taken over the new job at the Brooklyn Museum.
The museum’s new president and chief operating officer will oversee financial and operational operations.
She’s joined the museum from the Israel Museum, where she was the director of financial management.
We’re pleased to announce that Kelly Corrigan has joined the Brooklyn Museum as its new President and Chief Operating Officer. In her new role, Corrigan will oversee the museum’s financial and operational operations.
Before joining the Brooklyn Museum, Corrigan served as the executive director and chief financial officer of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. She spent eight years at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston as the chief financial officer and then chief operating officer.
She also has experience as the managing director of Orange and Rockland (a consortium of municipalities and museums headquartered in Westchester County) and as senior vice president of operations at the Museum of the City of New York.
“The last two years at the Israel Museum have been truly remarkable and as a result of the trust and dedication of our great team, the museum has never been stronger,” Corrigan said in a press release about the appointment. “As a lifelong New Yorker, I’m deeply excited about the opportunity to help continue its progress in particular.”
As the museum’s new president and chief operating officer, Corrigan will oversee fundraising activities, capital campaigns, collections development, marketing, public relations, communications, technology and staff development and employee performance.
“Working with Kelly, I am confident that the museum will attract new supporters, keep core supporters engaged and create new types of programs that demonstrate the many different ways people can engage with art and creativity,” said Susan Schwartz, the museum’s senior vice president for programs, in the press release.
Corrigan holds a degree in English from Columbia University and a master’s degree in art history from Hofstra University.
As the new president and chief operating officer, Corrigan joins the museum as it is in an exciting transitional period. While the museum’s 2016 “Faces and Places” exhibition significantly elevated its profile worldwide, its results—as well as its budget and operations—continue to be challenged. As part of her new role, Corrigan will help the museum focus on improving these areas and forging partnerships.
“The museum really is a jewel of an institution and has such critical, timeless work to do,” Corrigan said in a statement. “It is deeply committed to helping develop artists and to telling stories. That’s something I feel I’m truly committed to doing as well.”
Corrigan’s recent moves at the Israel Museum included overseeing the relocation of the archive into an open-space annex and the building and development of an artist-in-residence program, as well as capital campaigns to raise funds for new exhibitions and the construction of a new exhibits tower and restore an existing building.
As president and chief operating officer, she takes over the new role from Sandi Shubin Dresner, who served as the museum’s president and chief executive officer since 2017.