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January 9, 2006
Terence Riley, the who has been the Museum
of Modern Art’s chief curator of architecture and design
for the past 14 years, announced in early November that he
would leave in early March. And, on January 4, he revealed
that he would become director of the Miami Art Museum, effective
March 15.
“I never intended to stay at MoMA
as long as I did,” says Riley, who began his career as
an architect. He adds that the construction of the institution’s
new addition, designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, kept him on board
at the end of his tenure. “After we finished construction
I started thinking about doing other things.”
Riley led several major shows while at
MoMA, including recent exhibitions about landscape architecture’s
emergence (“Groundswell”) and about contemporary
Spanish Architecture (“New Architecture in Spain”).
He also helped install the architecture department in the
new building. Among his favorite achievements, Riley points
to the highly popular Mies van der Rohe show, “Mies in
Berlin,” which ran in 2001. He says it officially marked
Modernism’s return to public favor after years of derision.
Riley says he had no intention of taking
a new job right away, but couldn’t turn down the Miami
position, which will allow him to play a significant role
in another building project. After securing a major bond measure,
the museum is about to build a new 125,000-square-foot home
in the city’s Bicentennial Park. Its current museum,
in Downtown Miami, measures only 30,000 square feet. No architect
has been selected for the project yet, but Riley says he hopes
one will be announced in the next six to twelve months.
Another major challenge, he says, will
be convincing Miami’s major art holders to donate funds
and artworks to the museum, which will have much more space
for acquisitions. Riley is already a part-time resident of
Miami, having recently built a second home there. He will
replace Suzanne Delehanty, who stepped down from her director
post on December 31.
Sam
Lubell
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