David A. Brenneman, the Wilma E. Kelley Director of the Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University, is leaving to take on a new role outside the university.

David Brenneman. Photo courtesy of the IU Eskenazi Museum of Art

Since becoming the museum director in 2015, Brenneman oversaw the renaming of the art museum in honor of IU alumni Sidney and Lois Eskenazi in 2016 and led the transformational $30 million renovation of the museum’s signature I.M. Pei building. By adding a new Center for Education and Center for Prints, Drawings and Photographs, among numerous other improvements, the renovation enables more IU students and scholars to access IU’s substantial collection of more than 45,000 works of art.

Brenneman forged a number of important institutional partnerships at the museum, including those with Tsinghua University Art Museum in Beijing, China, and the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. During his nine-year tenure, he oversaw the acquisition of a broad range of art, from ancient to contemporary, with a special emphasis on adding works by women and artists of color, such as Elizabeth Catlett, Kara Walker, Julie Mehretu, McArthur Binion and Samuel Levi Jones. He oversaw the presentation of numerous special exhibitions, including those focusing on the work of Vik Muniz and Stuart Davis, as well as highlights from the costume collection of actor Glenn Close.

He helped the museum establish full-time positions in K-12 outreach and the first art therapist in an American university art museum. He was instrumental in establishing a contemporary art collection at the museum.

“Dr. Brenneman accomplished a great deal during his time at the Eskenazi Museum of Art, and we are thankful for his work to enrich the arts and humanities at IU,” IU Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Rahul Shrivastav said.

Brenneman will become the new director and CEO of the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, effective Sept. 1. His appointment in Savannah is a bit of a homecoming. Before joining the Eskenazi Museum of Art, he spent 20 years in various curatorial leadership positions at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, leaving as the director of collections and exhibitions in 2015.

At the High, he served as project leader for Louvre Atlanta, a multi-year series of exhibitions that brought many of the Louvre’s treasures to the U.S. for the first time. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) for his work on Louvre Atlanta.

“This is a bittersweet moment for my wife, Ruth, and me,” Brenneman said. “We have loved our time here and have made numerous friends in the Indiana University and Bloomington communities. I am very proud of the many accomplishments of the staff at the Eskenazi Museum of Art, and I look forward to working with my new colleagues at the Telfair to accomplish great things for Savannah.”

More information about interim leadership and a national search for the next director of the Eskenazi Museum of Art will be shared in the coming weeks.