The Denver Art Museum (DAM) announced the appointment of William Morrow as the Polly and Mark Addison Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, concluding an extensive international search. Morrow will oversee the DAM’s broad collection of contemporary art as well as continue the museum’s strong tradition of presenting world-class temporary and traveling exhibitions. One of Morrow’s first projects at the DAM will be to join the curatorial team for Nick Cave: Sojourn, an exhibition of new work debuting at the museum in June 2013.
Morrow was most recently the founding director of 21c Museum—an innovative private and public space in Louisville, Ky, that is in conjunction with 21c Hotel. During his tenure there, from 2005 to 2011, Morrow launched the museum portion of the space, developing and administering a dynamic visual arts program of emerging and internationally recognized artists that also included artist forums, film, dance, music, theater and other time-based artwork. Through Morrow’s efforts, 21c Museum became a cultural center for the city and an interesting new model for future art spaces.
In conjunction with his role as director of 21c Museum, Morrow was the curator of the private collection of Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, managing all aspects of their artwork from installation to acquisitions to collection care from 2005 to 2011. This included developing a 7,000 square foot storage facility for the collection of more than 2,500 artworks. In 2000, he completed an internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, gaining knowledge about day-to-day museum operations. Morrow obtained a Master of Museum Studies from the School for World Art and Museum Studies at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and a Master of Art History and English Literature from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in 2004. He also received a certificate of art history from the University of Cambridge and an associate of arts degree from Brevard College in North Carolina. Actively involved in the art and culture community, Morrow sits on the board of the Louisville Film Society, on the founding board of the Kentucky School of Art and was a founding member of the Commission on Public Art, Louisville, Ky. Morrow frequently serves as a panelist, lecturer and guest curator on contemporary art.
The modern and contemporary art collection features internationally prominent artists as well as emerging talents, including many who live and work in the western United States. In 2001, contemporary art collectors Vicki and Kent Logan gave more than 200 artworks to the modern and contemporary art department—the largest donation in the history of the department. In 2008, a new works-on-paper gallery was added to the third level, with regularly rotating exhibitions. A new media gallery on the fourth level, Fuse Box, showcases the talent of young, up-and-coming artists and rotates regularly. The collection, which is global in scope, includes works by artists such as Matthew Brannon, Jonas Burgert, Nicole Eisenman, Damien Hirst, Bjørn Melhus, Alan Rath, Neo Rauch, Ed Ruscha, Charles Sandison, David Schnell, Beverly Semmes, Richard Serra, Sean Scully, Sandy Skoglund, Shinique Smith and Andy Warhol. The department of modern and contemporary art also includes impressive holdings of Colorado artists, as well as the Herbert Bayer Collection and Archive. – www.denverartmuseum.org