Ravenal ’81 President of Art Museum Association

John Ravenal ’81 is now president of his professional organization: the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC).

The Sydney and France Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Ravenal has become the fourth president of AAMC since the organization was founded in 2001.

Ravenal joined the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in 1998, and his exhibitions have included Vanitas: Meditations on Life and Death in Contemporary Art; Outer & Inner Space, a history of video art; and Artificial Light, displayed at VCUarts Anderson Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami.

In addition, he has recently completed a book on modern and contemporary art at VMFA and is planning a complete redesign of all modern and contemporary galleries, as well as the addition of a sculpture garden, to open this May.

An art history major at Wesleyan, Ravenal earned his M.A. and M.Phil in art history from Columbia University. Prior to his affiliation with the VMFA, Ravenal worked at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where he was associate curator of 20th-century art.

“Our profession is now more important than ever as we maintain the artistic vision of the museums we serve and engage ever broadening audiences,” he says in an AAMC press release.

To learn more about the Association of Art Museum Curators, see http://www.artcurators.org.