Milwaukee Art Museum Appoints New Curator and Consultant

Milwaukee, WI, February 1, 2005— The Milwaukee Art Museum announced today the appointment of Mary Weaver Chapin as Assistant Curator of Earlier European Art and Mary Louise Mussoline as Consultant.

The new position of Assistant Curator of Earlier European Art is privately funded by an anonymous local donor. Chapin comes to the Milwaukee Art Museum from The Art Institute of Chicago, where she held the position of Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow in the Department of European Painting. A specialist in later European art, Chapin is one of three principle authors and co-curator of Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre , a major exhibition organized by The Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. opening in March 2005. As the research assistant for the show Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South (2001), Chapin contributed in important ways to the research and editing of the award-winning catalogue and exhibition. Prior to her work in Chicago, Chapin trained at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she assisted with the exhibitions The Private Collection of Edgar Degas (1997) and Toulouse-Lautrec from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1999).

“The appointment of Ms. Chapin is significant in two regards,” said Milwaukee Art Museum Director and CEO David Gordon. “Not only does Ms. Chapin bring her many strengths to the institution, but the private funding of a curatorial position reflects the support of the community and faith in our mission and future.”

Chapin received her B.A. from Wellesley College and her Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Art History form the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. As Assistant Curator, Chapin will help further expand the Milwaukee Art Museum’s growing emphasis on acquisitions, exhibitions and donor development in the area of European art.

The Milwaukee Art Museum has hired Mary Louise Mussoline as a consultant with the specific task of completing the building campaign. Mussoline is the owner of MLM Associates, providing consulting and training in fundraising and organizational development for non-profit organizations. She has worked in non-profit development for 27 years in a variety of capacities, most recently as Vice President of Institutional Advancement at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD). She has also worked for several foundations including the Brico Fund, the Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation and as a consultant for the Wisconsin AIDS Fund and Youth In Service Fund of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.

Mussoline will work with the Milwaukee Art Museum’s leadership team to raise $25 million to complete the campaign for the Calatrava-designed expansion. She will also assist the development department with annual fund goals and assist in hiring a director of development for the Museum.

Katie Hofman is the Interim Director of Development responsible for all other aspects of fundraising.

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