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\n\tThe Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, has announced that Caitl\u00edn Doherty as its new executive director. She will assume the post in October.<\/p>\n
\n\tDoherty is the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville in Florida. She joined the institution joined the instiuttion in 2017, following a tenure as chief curator at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum in Michigan. At the time of her appointment to MOCA Jacksonville, its board said she possessed an \u201cX factor, that rare quality that sets an individual apart.\u201d Her nine years at MOCA Jacksonville saw the museum\u2019s endowment double, attendance steadily increase, and its collection expand. MOCA Jacksonville celebrated its centenary in 2024 with a major milestone: accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums.<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring her tenure at the Broad, she curated several exhibitions, including \u201cThe Artist as Activist: Mahbubur Rahman and Tayeba Begum Lipi\u201d (2016), \u201c2116: Forecast of the Next Century\u201d (2016), \u201cGideon Mendel: Drowning World\u201d (2016), and \u201cMoving Time: Video Art at 50, 1965\u20132015,\u201d which traveled to China. She also taught art history, design history, and museum and gallery studies at Ireland\u2019s Waterford Institute of Technology, and was a frequent guest lecturer at institutions including University College London. Earlier in her career in Ireland, Doherty directed the interdisciplinary arts and cultural initiative Artswave and served as visual arts coordinator at the Garter Lane Arts Centre.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cCaitl\u00edn clearly knows what it takes to build and run a great art museum, whether it be exhibitions, collections, finance, or operations,\u201d Susan Willetts, Telfair Museums board chair and interim executive director, said in a statement. \u201cImportantly, she recognizes that, at the end of the day, it all comes down to people. Caitl\u00edn is all about building relationships. We are very excited to welcome her to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTelfair Museums, the oldest public art museum in the South, comprises four institutions: the Telfair Academy, the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters, the Jepson Center, and the Telfair Children\u2019s Art Museum.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt is exciting to be joining it at this important time in its history, as the Museum celebrates the 140th anniversary of the Telfair Academy and the 20th anniversary of the Jepson Center,\u201d Doherty said. \u201cI am looking forward to listening, learning and working alongside the museum\u2019s staff, board, supporters, artists, and community leaders as we collectively build on the Telfair\u2019s remarkable history and together shape its equally remarkable future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDoherty takes the helm at a challenging chapter in the institution\u2019s history. In early January, Telfair made headlines after abruptly laying off roughly 15 percent of its staff. Savannah television station WJCL reported that while the museum offered severance packages, employees were informed of the layoffs without advance notice during an internal Zoom call. Museum representatives told WJCL that the reductions were driven by decreased funding and had been approved by the board\u2019s executive committee.<\/p>\n
\n\tShortly afterward, on January 20, Telfair Museums executive director David Brenneman stepped down, citing a serious medical condition, with Willetts stepping in as interim executive director as the board began its search for Brenneman\u2019s replacement. Brenneman joined Telfair Museums in September 2024, after former executive director Benjamin T. Simmons resigned that March. Simmons served in the role for three years and did not provide a reason for his sudden departure at the time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-930099580.jpg?w=1024″] The Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, has announced that Caitl\u00edn Doherty as its new executive director. She will assume the post in October. Doherty is the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville in Florida. She joined the institution joined the instiuttion in 2017, following a tenure as chief curator at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2104050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2104050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2104050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2104050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2104050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}