He will take up the role in June 2022, succeeding Neal Benezra
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has appointed Christopher Bedford as its new director. Bedford will take up the role in June 2022, succeeding Neal Benezra who announced he would step down in February 2021 after the museum became engulfed in controversy.
Bedford joins from the Baltimore Art Museum, where he served as director for the past six years and gained critical attention for his moves to diversify the collection and raise staff salaries. Notable initiatives involved the deaccessioning, in 2016, of works by white male artists from the collection in order to purchase works by women and artists of colour, while in 2020 the museum committed to only showing and acquiring works by women for the course of that year. In a statement Bedford suggested he intends to bring his commitment to diversity to his new role, praising SFMOMA’s ‘commitments to equity and artistic scholarship. These values have been core to my work throughout my career, and I am very much looking forward to collaborating with SFMOMA leadership and staff to further define and develop the museum’s mission, priorities and program.’
His controversial management of BAM’s collection helped build Bedford’s image as a progressive, risk-taking leader. He’ll be taking on an institution that only recently faced multiple allegations of racism. In 2020 Gary Garrels stepped down from role as SFMOMA’s long-time senior curator in painting and sculpture after he made offensive comments at a staff meeting. That same year, amid the BLM protests, the museum deleted a comment made by Taylor Brandon, a former Black member of staff, on one of its posts. The incident caused an uproar, leading Benezra to apologise to Brandon.
When he resigned last year, Benezra said the controversies had not impacted his decision to leave the museum. He will remain in charge until Bedford takes over in June.
