Amada Cruz

Amada Cruz is the director and CEO of the Seattle Art Museum.[1] She was The Sybil Harrington Director & Chief Executive Officer of Phoenix Art Museum from February 2015 through mid 2019.[2]

Early life

Born in Havana, Cuba, Cruz studied Art History and Political Science at New York University.

Career

Cruz's first museum position was as a curatorial intern at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, where she subsequently worked as a Curatorial Assistant.

Her other museum positions have included posts as Associate Curator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian Institution; Acting Chief Curator and Manilow Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; Director of the Center for Curatorial Studies Museum at Bard College; and as the former Executive Director at San Antonio-based Artpace,[3] an artist residency program.

Cruz has also worked as a grantmaker and was the founding Program Director for United States Artists in Los Angeles, where she was responsible for all programming activities of a Ford and Rockefeller Foundations initiative. She also has been Executive Director of Artadia: The Fund and Dialogue in New York City, which awarded grants to visual artists in San Francisco, Houston and Chicago.[4]

Much of Cruz's career, as a museum director, has been marked by controversy. While director of the Phoenix Art Museum, some said her actions and treatment of staff had a negative impact on donations and employee retention.[5] In June 2021, as CEO and director of Seattle Art Museum, Amada Cruz drew ire from staff and community members for policies they felt would disproportionately harm unhoused individuals: the installation of boullards and the hiring of a private security company.[6] In September, in response to these policies, a group of community members and staff called for a boycott of the museum.[7] In October, Amada Cruz signed onto a letter from the Downtown Seattle Association, on behalf of the museum, calling on the city council to increase the police budget and subsize private security for nonprofits,[8] despite staff comments and the recent termination of Seattle Art Museum's contract with Star Protection Services, due to an employee's inappropriate conduct[9]

References
  1. Greenberger, Alex (June 10, 2019),Seattle Art Museum Names Amada Cruz Director and CEO ARTnews.
  2. "Phoenix Art Museum names new director". azcentral. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  3. "Amada Cruz Named Director of Artpace - News - Art in America". www.artinamericamagazine.com. 14 August 2012. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  4. Villarreal, Ignacio. "Artadia Names Amada Cruz Director". artdaily.com. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  5. "Nightmare at the Phoenix Art Museum: Docents Are Fleeing, Donors Drying up".
  6. "The Seattle Art Museum's Latest Installation: Hostile Architecture".
  7. "Collective of Seattle Art Museum Workers Call for a Boycott of the Museum".
  8. "Adobe Acrobat".
  9. "The Decolonize SAM movement is gaining momentum, not going away".
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