As a community-based, world-class museum, the Bruce Museum has promoted an understanding and appreciation of art and science for more than a century. To help expand upon this tradition, the Museum recently appointed Susan Ball to the newly-created position of Deputy Director.
Susan Ball holds a Ph.D. in art and architectural history from Yale University and brings 25 years of professional experience – as a professor, scholar, museum professional and nonprofit agency director – to the position.
According to Executive Director Peter Sutton, a priority for Dr. Ball will be working closely with senior staff at the Museum to develop programming and exhibitions that will appeal to a variety of audiences.
“We plan to increase the cultural and educational role that the Bruce Museum plays throughout the region,” says Sutton. “To assist us in achieving that goal, we are fortunate to have someone with Susan’s skills and experience.”
Her credentials and capabilities certainly qualify Dr. Ball for a position that includes managing the curatorial, education, exhibition and collections staff, promoting collaborative efforts across all departments at the Museum and curating art exhibitions.
For three years, Susan Ball served as Interim Director of Programs at the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), the largest service organization in the United States devoted to supporting individual artists, where she managed a staff of 14. Prior to joining NYFA, she was Executive Director at the College Art Association, Professor of Art History at the University of Delaware and the Director of Government and Foundation Affairs at the Art Institute of Chicago.
More recently, Dr. Ball has been working at the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation on the Campaign for Safe Buildings project, which explores the potential for a global movement to promote safe structures, and Music and Memory, a project designed to improve quality of life for the elderly and infirm by using personalized music made available through new technologies.
As an author and editor she has contributed significant works of scholarship in her field, including The Eye, the Hand, the Mind: 100 Years of the College Art Association (Rutgers University Press, Editor and Author, 2010) and The Profitable Artist: A Handbook for All Artists in the Literary, Media, Performing, and Visual Arts with Peter Cobb and Felicity Hogan (Allworth Press, 2011).
During the course of her career, Dr. Ball has also served on numerous organizational boards – including 13 years on the NYFA board of directors, on national advisory committees on the arts, culture, education, and technology and on juries convened by public and private agencies that make prestigious national awards.
For her part, Susan Ball is pleased to be joining the staff of the Bruce Museum. “I am delighted to be able to help lead an organization dedicated to providing science learning and cultural enrichment. And the opportunity to conceive and curate exhibitions at this wonderful Museum is equally appealing.”
