Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, director of the Frye Art Museum from 2009-2016, has just been named CEO and Director of Australiaâs Biennale of Sydney. Itâs a homecoming of sorts for the Australian-born curator, who has also served as the director of the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich and the Vancouver Art Gallery.
The Frye flourished under Birnie Danzkerâs lead, due to ambitious exhibitions by contemporary local and national artists all-but ignored by Seattleâs other two art museums. In 2015, she gave 2013 Stranger Genius Rodrigo Valenzuela his first solo museum show, and early last year, she turned the museum over to curator Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes for Young Blood: Noah Davis, Kahlil Joseph, The Underground Museum, of which Jen Graves remarked, âI havenât seen an art show this good in Seattle in a long time.â In Jenâs exit interview with Birnie Danzker, she identifies the directorâs willingness to relinquish control to deserving artists and leverage institutions as sites of âcollective workâ as the secret to her success.
This weekend, Birnie Danzker will be in Seattle receiving an honorary doctorate from Cornish College of the Arts, where she delivered this yearâs commencement address.