WATERTOWN, Mass.—The Board of Trustees at the Armenian Museum of America announced on Feb. 28, the appointment of Jennifer Liston Munson as the Armenian Museum’s next Executive Director.
Jennifer’s association with the organization first began in 2011 when she was introduced to the museum by portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh’s widow, Estrellita Karsh. It was at that time that Jennifer, one of the leading professionals from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, along with her colleague Keith Crippen, transformed the first floor of the Museum in preparation for the “Karsh: Celebrating Humanity and Highlights from the Collection” exhibitions.
Following this transformational project, the Executive Committee at the Museum contracted Jennifer for a number of other projects. Her work has always been of the highest caliber and has brought a new level of excellence and awareness to the Armenian Museum. She designed the Simourian Family Galleries which feature the exhibition Objects That Transcend, a display of newly-acquired metalwork, and the Adele and Haig Der Manuelian Contemporary Galleries, where she curated and designed Scars of Silence, an installation of video and photography by Nubar Alexanian that explores the subconscious suppression of loss by three generations of Armenian-Americans. In 2017 she worked with graphic designer Andrew Wollner to create the rebranding and identity program for the museum, which draws from an expressive symbol of eternity carved on a 12th-century Armenian monastery to form a distinctive logo that, combined with the tagline art, culture, & eternity, sets the tone for the reinvention of the museum.
“During Jennifer’s association with the Armenian Museum, she developed a great love and passion for Armenian art, history, and culture. One of her many goals will be to develop programs and exhibitions to expand visibility of the museum to a wider audience within both the Armenian and non-Armenian communities,” the museum’s Board of Trustees said in a statement. “The Board feels extremely fortunate to have someone with her extensive experience and creativity leading the museum at this pivotal time in the organization’s history,” the statement went on.
Liston Munson received her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University, and a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Loughborough College of Art and Design in England. Prior to her work as a senior member of the Exhibitions and Design Department at the MFA, she was a 2001 Traveling Scholar at the MFA. Jennifer maintains a professional art practice. Her work is held in many corporate and private collections.
The Armenian Museum of America houses and preserves objects of art and culture collected from Armenian families and donors from around the world. The museum holds its collection in trust for future generations as objects of witness and survival to serve as a record of Armenian creativity, ingenuity, and wisdom for those who are familiar with Armenian history and culture, as well as for those to whom these objects, manuscripts, and ephemera are a new experience.
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Great choice, finally.
Amazing a person w a middle name. An odar, incredible. Lets see how many years before this museum closes down and ends up at the Getty.
And apparently she is not even Armenian! Indeed, a great choice! And, as I write, this I’m off to Stamford’s St. Patrick’s Day parade (always early!).
Paul Nakian