THE IRISH Museum of Modern Art has appointed Sarah Glennie as its director.
Ms Glennie, who will take up the position in April, has been director of the Irish Film Institute since 2008. Prior to that she had amassed considerable curatorial experience in the visual arts.
She succeeds Enrique Juncosa as director of Imma at a challenging time for the institution.
The main museum building at Kilmainham is closed for extensive upgrading and refurbishment work and is scheduled to reopen in January 2013. Within the next few months, Imma is expected to take up occupancy of part of the Earlsfort Terrace complex as a temporary exhibition venue.
Ms Glennie, who was born in Britain, studied art history at the University of Bristol and completed an MA in museum and curatorial studies at the University of Manchester. She went on to work at Tate St Ives and Kettle’s Yard gallery in Cambridge.
Ms Glennie moved to Ireland in 1995 to work as a curator at Imma, where she oversaw shows by international figures such as Danish installation artist Olafur Eliasson and the New York-based, Iranian-born Shirin Neshat. She also curated Dorothy Cross’s Ghost Ship Nissan Art Project in 2001.
In 2001 Ms Glennie became a curator with the Henry Moore Foundation Contemporary Projects, undertaking projects in New York and Cork. She was commissioner and curator of the Republic’s representation at the 2005 Venice Biennale, and in the same year she became artistic director of the Model Arts and Niland Gallery in Sligo.
Commenting on her appointment, Imma chairman Eoin McGonigal said the museum was delighted to have secured her.
Ms Glennie said she aimed to “ensure that Ireland continues to have a modern art museum of distinction and international significance”.
