Amada Cruz (Photo by Dorothy Edwards/Crosscut)
Courtesy by the SB Museum
July 25, 2023 – The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Amada Cruz as Director and Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Executive Director effective October 30, 2023. Presented by the Selection Committee of the Museum, Cruz was later unanimously elected by the Board of Directors.
“We are grateful to the more than 100 stakeholders, including community members, employees, board of directors (past and present), and donors who participated in the selection process. Your input was used to inform our decision making after an international search and review of many impressive candidates, we are delighted with the result,” said Lynn Cunningham Brown, chair of the selection committee.
Cruz comes to SBMA from the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), where she has served as Director and CEO of Illsley Ball Nordstrom since 2019. She says, “I am delighted to join SBMA with its important mission of ‘integrating art into people’s lives. This inspiring position is a call to engage the different communities of the Santa Barbara region increasing the local relevance and global visibility of the Museum. I look forward to working with the staff and the Board to build on the strong foundation of academic exposure and strong educational programs established under my predecessor, Larry Feinberg. As we move into the 21st century, museums are challenged to demonstrate their purpose by engaging audiences and building community. SBMA’s diverse collections and programs offer countless ways to celebrate and embrace a rapidly diversifying population.”
Nicholas Mutton, SBMA Chairman of the Board, states, “Amada has a proven track record as a consummate professional, a visionary leader and a change agent who has succeeded wherever she has been. We are taking advantage of a wonderful opportunity right now. This change will allow us to together craft a compelling strategic vision for the future, engage with the Santa Barbara community, advocate for inclusion, diversity, equity, and access, empower and inspire our Museum staff, and enhance the institution’s resources. ”. And he adds: “The Museum thanks Larry Feinberg, who is retiring at the end of this year, for his contributions during his successful 15-year tenure at SBMA.”
During her 30-year career, Cruz has held positions such as Director of the Phoenix Art Museum; Executive Director of Artpace, a San Antonio-based artist residency program; Museum Director of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, where she co-organized the first survey of museums in the United States on the work of Takashi Murakami; Acting Chief Curator and Manilow Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Cruz has also worked as a grant maker and was the founding director of the American Artists Program in Los Angeles, where she formed long-standing relationships with artists from across the country, and was responsible for all programming activities for a foundations initiative. Ford and Rockefeller. She has also been the Executive Director of Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue in New York City, which awarded fellowships to visual artists in San Francisco, Houston, and Chicago.
Born in Havana, Cuba, Cruz received a BA in art history and political science from New York University. She received the 2018 Virginia Cárdenas Arts Advocacy Award from Xico, an Arizona cultural institution serving Latino and indigenous artists. In 2015, W magazine named her one of America’s 11 Most Powerful Museum Directors.
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art is one of the best museums on the West Coast and is renowned for the excellent quality of its permanent collection. Its mission is to integrate art into people’s lives through internationally recognized exhibitions and special programs, as well as the thoughtful presentation of its permanent collection. SBMA opened to the public in 1941 and through the immense generosity of dedicated collectors, has assembled a significant collection of more than 25,000 works of art spanning more than 5,000 years of human creativity.
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1130 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101.
Open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm, free Thursday nights from 5 to 8 pm
805.963.4364 www.sbma.net
