Charles Venable Steps Down as Head of Indianapolis Museum of Art
Charles Venable, president of Newfields, the campus that is home to the Indiana Museum of Art, has resigned after an insensitive job posting by the institution on a recruiting site drew public outrage. Venable earlier this week edited and then apologized for the January advertisement on the website of search firm m/Oppenheim, for a director capable of maintaining the IMA’s “traditional, core, white art audience” while seeking to reach new, diverse audiences.
The posting, which went relatively unnoticed until February 12, sparked a public call for Venable’s resignation, released February 16, signed by eighty-five Newfields employees and members of its board of governors; additionally, more than two thousand artists, arts leaders, and former museum employees, ranging from the chief curator of the Andy Warhol Museum to a woman who described herself as the “mother of biracial, art-loving
Newfields director Charles Venable. Image courtesy of Newfields.
Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most consequential developments coming out of the art world and art market. Here’s what you need to know on this Wednesday, February 17.
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Some Skulls at Penn Museum May Belong to Enslaved People – A new investigation into skulls held by the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania found that dozens were taken from burial grounds used by the Philadelphia Almshouse, which later became a hospital. The report does not rule out that some of these remains are from people who were formerly enslaved, although it says it is “highly unlikely.” Meanwhile, the museum says it is continuing to take steps to repatriate and rebury dozens of other skulls in the collection that were found to be remains of enslaved people from Cuba. (