James Ballinger to Retire
PHOENIX ART MUSEUM DIRECTOR ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
James K. Ballinger, The Sybil Harrington Director of the Phoenix Art Museum, announced April 17 to the museum’s board of trustees and staff his intention to retire, and requested the board initiate a search process to replace him.
Ballinger, who will celebrate his 40th anniversary with the museum in December and his 33rd year as director in February, said the timing of the announcement was to “ensure that the succession-planning process will be deliberate and seamless until the proper person is found, and that a smooth transition follows.”
Ballinger joined the museum in 1974 as Curator of Collections. He was named Director in February, 1982.
Chairman of the board of trustees Jim Patterson said the Museum’s Succession Planning Committee will retain a national search firm to oversee an international process.
During Ballinger’s tenure, the museum has presented nearly 500 exhibitions and the collection has grown by 10,000 objects. Ballinger has personally organized more than 50 exhibitions, authored exhibition catalogues and a book on Frederic Remington, administered two major capital campaigns that expanded the museum from 72,000 square feet to its current 285,000 square feet and brought a number of blockbuster exhibitions to Phoenix, including the current Hollywood Costume. He currently manages a staff of more than 115 and an operating budget of $11.6 million a year. He is recognized as a leader nationally in the field of Western American art.
“When I looked at the numbers, they simply added up: I will turn 65 this year, and I’ll celebrate 40 years with the museum and 33 years as director. Looking at the Museum’s next decade, it’s the right time to turn over the reins,” he said. “We have a great exhibition schedule set through 2016 and a quality staff to carry us forward. I am a bit of an oddity in that I have stayed so long in one place.
He points to the City of Phoenix Bond Election in 1988 as a milestone launching point for the museum’s growth and as “transformative to the arts community of Phoenix. I’m proud to have played a key role in that election.” Ballinger served as Treasurer for the last two City of Phoenix Bond Programs by mayoral appointment.
Following the first expansion for the Steele Gallery, Cummings Great Hall, JP Morgan Chase Lobby, Harnett Gallery and Whiteman Hall, the museum’s first “blockbuster” exhibition, Splendors of Ancient Egypt in 1998, attracted sellout crowds that continued with follow-up blockbusters Monet at Giverny in 1999 and Secret World of The Forbidden City: Splendors from China’s Imperial Palace in 2001.
Under Ballinger’s direction, in 2006, following a $41.2 million campaign, the museum completed its 18-year facilities master plan when it opened the Greenbaum Lobby, Dorrance Sculpture Garden and the Marshall, Hendler, Anderman, Marcus, Marley, Brown, Norton and Men’s Art Council galleries in the Katz Wing for Modern Art. Shortly thereafter they opened Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art: Treasures from the Rijksmusen, Amsterdam. At that time the acclaimed model program with The University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography was unveiled.
