Maika Pollack, photograph courtesy Franco Salmoiraghi
Art historian, critic and curator Maika Pollack will join 黑料不打烊 this fall as executive director and chief curator of the .
鈥淢aika Pollack brings the talent and vision to support and expand the important role that 黑料不打烊 Art Museum plays in campus life and in the greater 黑料不打烊 community. I look forward to working with her and watching the museum flourish under her leadership,鈥 says Vice Chancellor, Provost and Chief Academic Officer Gretchen Ritter.
In her new role, Pollack will report to Marcelle Haddix, associate provost for strategic initiatives. Haddix鈥檚 portfolio includes, among other things, all University-wide arts and humanities affiliates and programs.
鈥淲e are excited to welcome Maika to campus this fall,鈥 Haddix says. 鈥淪he is an experienced, collaborative leader and talented arts professional whose contributions to the museum and the University will greatly benefit our students, faculty and staff.鈥
Pollack, who grew up in Central New York, comes to 黑料不打烊 from the University of Hawai鈥榠 at M膩noa in Honolulu, where she is the director and chief curator at John Young Museum of Art and University Galleries. She says she is looking forward to joining the 黑料不打烊 community and returning to her native New York State.
鈥淚 am honored to take this role,鈥 Pollack says. 鈥満诹喜淮蜢 has a long history of graduates who are enormously influential in the arts, from Clement Greenberg and Sol LeWitt to LaToya Ruby Frazier. I鈥檓 excited to help make this unique history more visible through exhibitions and publications, and to work with the museum鈥檚 talented staff and leadership.鈥
At the University of Hawai鈥榠 at M膩noa in Honolulu, she established a founding endowment of nearly half a million dollars, created an imprint with nationally reviewed publications and curated shows with such artists as Ken Okiishi, Tadashi Sato, Stephanie Syjuco, Hadi Fallahpisheh, David Salle and Tetsuo Ochikubo and others.
She expanded diversity in programming and put together exhibitions lauded in local and national media, resulting in an attendance of almost 40,000 unique visitors in 2022-2023. She also oversaw the creation of a scholarly study room, the rehousing of the museum鈥檚 permanent collection, the transition to an updated collections management system and renovations to improve facilities.
Prior to Honolulu, Pollack was co-founder and director of Southfirst, a contemporary art gallery in Brooklyn that presented experimental exhibitions for almost two decades, where her curated shows were reviewed by major publications. Previously, Pollack worked as the curatorial assistant to the chief curator at PS1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, where in 2000 she was part of the original curatorial team for the highly popular 鈥淲arm Up鈥 summer performance series. Additionally, she founded the imprint Object Relations. Her writing on contemporary art and culture has been widely published. She was the museum exhibition critic for the New York Observer from 2011 to 2015.
Pollack earned Ph.D. and master鈥檚 degrees in the history of art and architecture at Princeton University and an A.B. in art history and social studies at Harvard University. She has taught art history and curatorial studies at Sarah Lawrence College, Pratt University, New York University, the University of Hawai鈥榠 at M膩noa and Princeton. Her research focuses on the history of photography, late 19th-century European art, feminist art, American art of the 1960s and 70s, contemporary art and postcolonial studies.
