Some of you may know that our beloved Arnold L. Lehman announced earlier this year that he will be r

Some of you may know that our beloved Arnold L. Lehman announced earlier this year that he will be retiring from his position as the Shelby White and Leon Levy Director of the Brooklyn Museum this June. Arnold has served in his leadership role here at the Museum since 1997 and his first official act as Director was to march in the Brooklyn’s West Indian Labor Day Parade. Since then, he has prioritized both the individual visitor’s experience and the community’s engagement with the Museum through the presentation of innovative exhibitions and reinstallations of the permanent collection; highly successful public programs (including Target First Saturdays!) that address the diversity of the collection and the community; active support for and participation of Brooklyn-based artists.As part of the #BKArtistsBall Gala program, we will be presenting Arnold with the Augustus Graham Medal in recognition of his visionary leadership and transformation of the Museum and his unwavering support of Brooklyn’s art community. Additionally, we will be honoring three acclaimed contemporary artists who have had major exhibitions during Arnold’s tenure. Kiki Smith, Takashi Murakami and Jean-Michel Basquiat will recieve the Asher B. Durand Award – named for the artist who donated the first work of contemporary art to the Museum’s collection. Many of us have our favorite memories of Arnold and the Museum during his time as fearless leader and each Thursday we will share some of our favorite memories with you. If you have any favorite BKM memories over these last 18 years, we’d love to hear them – Share them with us using #ArnoldMemories! We’ll kick it off today with this #TBT to one of Arnold’s first Director’s portraits here at the Museum. | Photo by Ben Ashen  -- source link

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