(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2023)
John Lefner will become the new CEO of the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls in May 2023.
The Hyde Collection, the internationally-known fine arts museum in Glens Falls, turns 60 this year, and the museum ballyhooed that information along with major changes in personnel last week.
John Lefner, the current chief operations and development officer, will take over in May for Chief Executive Norman Dascher.
Also, in the last 12 months, the museum has added four people: Dr. Derin Tanyol, curator of modern and contemporary art, the first ever to hold that position at the museum; Dr. Bryn Schockmel, curator of the permanent collection, took over for Jonathan Canning; Katelyn Foley is the curator of education and engagement; and Rachel Lovelace-Portal is the registrar and collections manager.
Lefner said the museum used the relatively slow time during the pandemic to focus on the “Reimagine” project a redevelopment of sorts, which focuses on better community outreach and improvements to the outdoor art walk experience and other improvements. As well, the museum looked toward new personnel.
“This group…are really leading the change” at the museum, Lefner said of the four people recently hired. He spoke during the celebration of the museum Thursday Feb. 9.
Schockmel said now that they had two people curating the exhibits it offered them more time to research and create what was offered.
“I struggle to understand how one person did this previously,” Schockmel said of Canning who is now at Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University, according to his LinkedIn page.
Tanyol agreed, adding that they were looking forward to developing their own exhibits, and inviting more people to campus, and finding ways to get more young people interested in the arts. Students from Queensbury High School were on hand for the festivities Thursday.
“The Hyde is often thought of as a repository of old masterworks,” Tanyol said during her official remarks.
However, a donation from the late Werner Feibes and James Schmitt, 160 works of art, is a substantial portion of the museum’s modernist collection. Tanyol said the pair bought art because they loved it.
“They weren’t purchasing works of art as their investment,” she said, adding during her official remarks “that was really a game changing donation.”
They collected the work of many artists including Jean Arp, who is on exhibition in the museum now. Two woodcuts in the exhibition are from the Murray Collection, another important repository of modern art at The Hyde, press materials say.
Jean Arp “Nature Without Measure” from the modern collection and Sam Gilliam “Asking” from the permanent collection are on exhibit along with the traveling exhibition “Works on Paper” from the Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art.
Lefner thanked the board of trustees and others for entrusting him with the new position as CEO.
“Norm, I can’t thank you enough for the leadership...for the friendship that we share, for being my mentor,” Lefner said.
Starting in June, the museum with exhibit “Songs of the Horizon: David Smith, Music & Dance.”