Art Basel Miami Beach 2023, December 8

Renewing the Institution: How Do Museums Remain Relevant?

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Silvia Karman Cubiñá, Executive Director and Chief Curator, The Bass, Miami Beach&nbsp; Jillian Jones, Deputy Director, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo&nbsp; Tonya M. Matthews, President and CEO, International African American Museum, Charleston&nbsp; Moderator: András Szántó, Author and cultural strategy advisor, Brooklyn&nbsp;
Many significant US art museums have just completed or are completing redesigns and extensions. These institutions are not only adding more welcoming facilities, they are also adapting to new times. From integrating new technologies to finding new ways of working and engaging audiences, museums are seeking to reassert their relevance today. Here, three leaders reveal how they are resetting their institutions.
Since 2008, Silvia Karman Cubiñá has held the position of Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Bass. During her tenure, Ms. Cubiñá has led a USD 12 million institutional transformation, complete with a building renovation by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Arata Isozaki and David Gauld. Throughout this time, the museum's annual budget and full-time staff quadrupled, and the board grew from three members to 30. Prior to The Bass, Cubiñá was the director of The Moore Space, Miami (2002-2008).&nbsp; 

Jillian Jones is the Deputy Director at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. In this role, Jones serves on the museum’s leadership team, managing most aspects of the visitor interface and general operations. Prior to this role, Jones served as the chief fundraising officer, sharing leadership responsibilities for the museum’s USD 230 million capital campaign. Jillian has an MA in Museum Studies from the George Washington University (GWU) and has held roles at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, GWU, and the National Park Service.&nbsp;
Dr Tonya M. Matthews is president and CEO of the International African American Museum (IAAM), which is located in Charleston at the historically sacred site of Gadsden’s Wharf, one of America’s most prolific former slave ports. As a champion of authentic, empathetic storytelling of American history, IAAM is one of the nation’s newest platforms for the disruption of institutionalized racism as America continues the walk toward ‘a more perfect union.’&nbsp;&nbsp;A thought leader in inclusive frameworks, social entrepreneurship, and education, Matthews has written articles and book chapters across these varied subjects. She is founder of The STEMinista Project, a movement to engage girls in their future with STEM careers. Matthews is also a poet and is included in The 100 Best African American Poems (2010), edited by Nikki Giovanni. Matthews received her PhD in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University and her Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Duke University, alongside a certificate in African and African American Studies.&nbsp;
András Szántó advises museums, foundations, educational institutions, and corporations on cultural strategy and program development, worldwide. He earned his PhD in sociology from Columbia University. A widely published author, his writings have appeared in The New York Times, Artforum, Artnet News, and The Art Newspaper, among other publications. As a consultant, he advises some of the world’s leading cultural institutions and corporate art programs. He has lectured on art business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art and has directed the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he helped launch and oversee the ‘Global Museum Leaders Colloquium’, a series of seminars for museum directors. He is a frequent moderator of the Art Basel Conversations series. Born in Budapest, he has curated exhibitions on Hungarian art of the 1960s and 1970s. His most recent books are The Future of the Museum (2020) and Imagining the Future Museum (2022). He lives in Brooklyn.&nbsp;
The Art Basel Miami Beach 2023&nbsp;Conversations program was curated by&nbsp;Emily Butler.

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