New Museum Names Andrew An Westover Director of Education and Public Engagement -ARTnews

As it begins planning an expansion, the New Museum in New York has filled one of its top posts.

Andrew An Westover has been named the museum’s Keith Haring Director of Education and Public Engagement—a position previously held by Johanna Burton, who also served as a curator at the museum. She departed to become director of  the Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio this past March. Westover begins at the New Museum on August 5.

In a statement, Westover said, “I am honored to join the New Museum at this juncture. The museum’s commitment to education is particularly inspiring, and I look forward to working across the institution to connect people with the art and ideas the museum presents.”

Westover has previously worked at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. He is currently a doctoral candidate at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is working toward a Ph.D. in education.

Massimiliano Gioni, the museum’s artistic director, said in a statement, “Andrew brings to the New Museum a distinguished record of making education an open and inclusive public arena. In concert with the exhibitions program, we look forward to his leadership, strengthening the impact of the department’s engagement with the most pressing issues of today.”

Westover comes aboard as the museum is set to add more than 10,000 square feet of exhibition space, a bookstore, a restaurant, and more in a new building designed by OMA. The expansion has not been without controversy—a newly formed workers union has claimed that the New Museum is focusing on growing its physical space at the expense of appropriately compensating its workers.