Michael E. Shapiro, the Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr. Director of the High Museum of Art, announces that the Museum has appointed Kimberly Watson as the new Director of Museum Advancement. Watson will oversee the High’s advancement department, which consists of individual, corporate, foundation and government support as well as the High’s largest fundraiser, the Wine Auction. Watson will join the High on April 4, 2011.
“Kimberly will bring a great depth of knowledge to this position from her extensive fundraising and publicity planning experience for a diverse group of major non-profit institutions in New York,” stated Michael E. Shapiro, the High’s Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr. Director. “We are looking forward to welcoming Kimberly during such an important fundraising time for the Museum. She will play an important role in continuing to grow the High’s successful outreach to support new opportunities for the High and our growing audiences.”
Watson has more than 15 years of experience in fundraising and publicity campaign planning. Most recently, she served as Senior Major Gifts Officer at Hunter College in New York City. From 2006 to 2009, Watson was the Director of Development at the Studio in a School Association in New York City. During her tenure at STUDIO, Watson planned and executed the most successful fundraising benefit in its history. Her prior positions include a10-year tenure at The Museum of Modern Art in New York as Assistant to the Director of Special Events (1996–1998), Senior Coordinator of Special Events (1998–2000), Assistant Director of Special Events (2000–2003) and Assistant Director of Development (2003–2006).
“I am honored and excited to be joining the High, with its wonderful history of classic and contemporary art and architecture,” stated Kimberly Watson. “I am eager to create even more opportunities for individuals and organizations to experience the High and for its leadership and staff to succeed in our mission of bringing more art to more people more often.”
Watson received a master’s degree in public administration from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University in 1996, specializing in non-profit management, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Harper College at the State University of New York in Binghamton, New York, in 1992.
High Museum of Art
The High Museum of Art, founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association, is the leading art museum in the southeastern United States. With more than 12,000 works of art in its permanent collection, the High Museum of Art has an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American and decorative art; significant holdings of European paintings; a growing collection of African American art; and burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, photography and African art. The High is also dedicated to supporting and collecting works by Southern artists and is distinguished as the only major museum in North America to have a curatorial department specifically devoted to the field of folk and self-taught art. The High’s media arts department produces acclaimed annual film series and festivals of foreign, independent and classic cinema. In November 2005, the High opened three new buildings by architect Renzo Piano that more than doubled the Museum’s size, creating a vibrant “village for the arts” at the Woodruff Arts Center in midtown Atlanta. For more information about the High, please visit www.high.org.
The Woodruff Arts Center
The Woodruff Arts Center is ranked among the top four arts centers in the nation. The Woodruff is unique in that it combines four visual and performing arts divisions on one campus as one not-for-profit organization. Opened in 1968, the Woodruff Arts Center is home to the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum of Art and Young Audiences. To learn more about the Woodruff Arts Center, please visit www.woodruffcenter.org
