David Mickenberg

David Mickenherg (born 1954 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American Art Museum director, currently of the Allentown Art Museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania,^[1] an art professor and an author.

Mickenberg received his B.A. from Colgate University in Hamilton, New York and his M.A. in art history from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.^[2] Subsequently, he took courses towards a Doctorate in 12th Century French Architecture at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana and then went on to become a program coordinator, lecturer and the acting director of the National Endowment for the Humanities learning Museum Program at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Mickenberg was appointed to the post in Allentown in 2013;^[3] previously he had tenures as the director of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois,^[4] the Davis Museum at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts ( where he was also a Professor of art at the College) and the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia.^[5]

His spans as the head of various art institutions have not been without major accomplishments and or controversies; while at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art there were rumblings about his being hard to work under and a rash of staff resignations,^[6] while at the Block Museum he spearheaded a successful twenty five million dollar expansion^[7] and at the Taubman he worked against the tide of the local general public's apathy towards contemporary art by bringing in folk art in the form of giant styrofoam sculptures by Roanoke favorite Mark Cline.^[8] Meanwhile, during his time at the Davis he was at the helm when a Fernand Leger painting "Woman and Child" (1921) was at first on loan for an exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art while the Davis was closed for renovations but was returned and then stored in a crate at Wellesley and disappeared in the intercourse. The work has not been seen since.^[9]

Mickenberg is the author of "Songs of Glory: Medieval Art from 900-1500" (Oklahoma Museum of Fine Arts 1985)^[10] and "Printmaking in America" (co-authored with Trudy V. Hansen, Joanne Moser and Barry Walker - Harry N. Abrams 1995)^[11] As well he co-edited "The Last Expression: Art and Auschwitz" which accompanied an exhibition held at the Block Museum at Northwestern University and later traveled to the Brooklyn Museum (Block Museum 2002 - co-edited with Corrine Granof and Peter Hayes).^[12][13][14] He also wrote the introduction for "The Graven Image: The Rise of Professional Printmakers in Antwerp and Haarlem, 1540-1640" (Northwestern University Press 1993).^[15][16]

Allentown Art Museum

Mickenberg arrived at the Allentown Art Museum as the fourth director in some six odd years, succeeding the late J. Brooks Joyner.^[17] One of the more popular policies he has instituted in order to achieve greater public visitation to the museum is to offer admission to the venue for selected spans of time such as the summer season gratis.^[18]

It was also under Mickenberg's stewardship that the museum acquirred from the Lehighton, Pennsylvania American Legion post "The Lehighton Mural" by Franz Kline which the artist created for the aforementioned branch of the U.S Veterans organization.^[19]

References