Ahead of its 75th anniversary, Oklahoma City Museum of Art names Michael J. Anderson new president and CEO

Michael J. Anderson feels grateful for the moment.

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art announced Wednesday that Anderson has been named the museum's new president and CEO.

"This is a really kind of an eventful moment in our museum's history because we are approaching our 75th anniversary and things are kind of, I think, changing for us institutionally. Our collection is growing. We have a lot of stakeholders that are really committed to this museum ... and it's really energizing," Anderson said.

"We really do want to bring the world to Oklahoma City, and because of that, I think we're really uniquely positioned to provide something unique and original within this sort of total arts culture that we're developing in the city. It's a really exciting time to find myself in this position because of where we are as a museum and where we are as a city."

Previously the museum's director of curatorial affairs, Anderson has been interim president and CEO since July. He succeeds former President and CEO E. Michael Whittington, who parted ways with the museum last summer.

Anderson, who joined the Oklahoma City Museum of Art staff in 2014, was named to his new position following a national search led by board Chairman-elect Meg Salyer. Cynda Ottaway, chairman of the museum's board of trustees, praised the staff and leadership team for keeping the institution running smoothly during the six-month transition.

“I also appreciate the many hours of time that our board members volunteered to assist in the search process, especially Meg and her efforts in the national search," Ottaway said in a statement. "I am confident in Michael’s abilities to lead us through our upcoming year that includes the celebration of the museum’s 75th anniversary in May and into the future."

Branching out

Anderson initially joined the museum's staff as film curator, but his role soon expanded.

"My academic background is that I have a Ph.D. in the history of art and film studies, and my history of art area is predominantly American art," said Anderson, who earned his doctorate from Yale University. "Our collection is really strong in American art, so it was sort of a natural transition for me to do some of our American exhibitions in particular and then also start to build that collection. I've had opportunities here to branch out."

During his time at the museum, Anderson has continued to develop the Museum Film program along with curating numerous exhibitions, including “Our City, Our Collection,” “Matisse in His Time” and “Apichatpong Weerasethakul: The Serenity of Madness."

He has spearheaded efforts to reinterpret the museum's permanent collection, culminating in last year’s reinstallation, titled “From the Golden Age to the Moving Image: The Changing Face of the Permanent Collection.” He also has been focused on building the museum’s collection, helping to add works from acclaimed artists like Kehinde Wiley, Thomas Cole and Fletcher Benton.

"It's been extraordinarily busy. We've actually been very active, I would say, as a staff, building our exhibitions program and collecting. One of the big things that we've done and one of our big successes from the past few months is we've added over 250 new works to our collection," Anderson said.

"As seamlessly as I think everything has felt the last six months, there's been so much work from our staff at every level to kind of maintain that. And now we're sort of at that opportunity where we can really be confident in executing the vision of the board and the staff. We're going to be building up our curatorial staff, and just more generally, there are a lot of opportunities for us to grow as an institution. ... We've really been overwhelmed by the support and the commitment this community has to this museum."

Growing opportunities

Leading up to the spring 75th anniversary celebration, he said the museum will be announcing its upcoming exhibition plans as well as launching a couple of smaller exhibits prior to the eagerly awaited opening in June of the traveling show “POP Power from Warhol to Koons: Masterworks from the Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation.”

"One goal is to create an exhibition program that we're working three years out, so we're really kind of thinking long-term about our opportunities to bring really first-class, extraordinary works to Oklahoma City," Anderson said.

"Our focus these past few months has been to really engage with our mission as a museum, and all the decisions that we've been making have been thinking about how we enrich lives through the visual arts. So, we've brought back a number of learning and engagement programs that were popular. ... We want to be a place that provides access for our community to really enriching artworks, to really extraordinary visual art experiences and to new ideas that are unique to our community."