BIOGRAPHY

Malcolm Rogers assumed the role of Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), in September 1994. During his tenure, he has expanded the Museum’s encyclopedic collection, presented a variety of innovative exhibitions, enhanced arts education programs, enlarged the MFA’s campus, and welcomed new audiences. Rogers’ initiatives are motivated by the MFA’s mission: to serve a variety of people through direct encounters with works of art. This has included renovating and reopening both of the Museum’s historic entrances. In addition, Rogers eliminated admission fees for children 17 and younger, extended the Museum’s hours (some of the longest of any major museum in America), and instituted a series of free community days. Approximately one million visitors each year are exposed to infinite possibilities for education and inspiration at the Museum.

Under Rogers’ leadership, the Museum has achieved a transformative building expansion and renovation, the focal points of which are a new wing for the Art of the Americas and the Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard (opened to the public on November 20, 2010). Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Foster + Partners (London), these enhancements to the MFA enrich the ways in which visitors experience the Museum’s works of art; increase space for its encyclopedic collection of more than 450,000 objects, special exhibitions, and educational programs; and improve navigation throughout the building. In addition to the wing and courtyard, highlights of the MFA’s project include a new Ann and Graham Gund Gallery for rotating exhibitions, a new Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Visitor Center, and new galleries, educational spaces, and conservation labs. The MFA’s expansion and renovation project was supported by a capital campaign that raised $504 million, of which $345 million provided for new construction and the renovation of numerous galleries and spaces within the MFA’s existing building. The remaining funds support the endowment of programs and positions in perpetuity and critical annual operations. Other building developments at the Museum include the renovation of the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art (former West Wing, designed by I.M. Pei), which will open in September 2011, and the purchase (in 2007) of the nearby Forsyth Institute building, which will enable further expansion of the Museum’s campus in years to come.

Rogers’ vision for the Museum includes creating opportunities to share the MFA’s encyclopedic collection on the world stage. Associations with internationally renowned arts institutions, such as the Royal Academy of Arts and National Gallery, London, and the Musée du Louvre have led to new scholarship and the organization of acclaimed exhibitions, including, respectively, Monet in the 20th Century (1998), Americans in Paris, 1869–1900 (2006), and Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice (2009). Other global initiatives include the expansion of the Museum’s traveling exhibition program, and a partnership with a sister museum in Japan, the Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which opened in 1999. Rogers has also played a key role in fostering a relationship with the Italian government that has resulted in the creation of guidelines to protect antiquities at institutions around the globe, as well as cultural exchange in the areas of exhibitions, scholarship, and conservation.

Rogers’ focus on making the MFA’s collections internationally accessible has also spurred the development of the MFA’s online collections database at www.mfa.org, which features more than 345,000 works of art from the Museum’s collection of 450,000 objects, one of the largest online art museum collections in the world. MFA Publications also extends the Museum’s sphere of influence with scholarly publications featuring its collections and exhibitions. In the past decade, MFA Publications has published more than 100 new titles, including award-winning exhibition catalogues, an MFA highlights series focusing on Museum collections, and biographies and autobiographies of, and collaborations with, major artists.

Rogers has also overseen the organization of nearly 300 exhibitions at the MFA, which have ranged from old masters (Rembrandt’s Journey: Painter–Draftsman–Etcher, 2003–04) and masters of photography

(Ansel Adams, 2005–06), to Egyptian treasures (Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen, 1999–2000). In some cases, he has redefined “fine art” with shows that have highlighted the artistry of design, such as Dangerous Curves: The Art of the Guitar (2000–01), a celebration of the instrument, and Speed, Style and Beauty: Cars from the Ralph Lauren Collection (2005), which illustrated the evolution of car design as seen in European automobiles created between the 1930s and 1990s.

In addition, Rogers has built upon the collection with more than 40,000 acquisitions. Included in these works of art are Henri Matisse’s Reclining Nude (1946); Edgar Degas’ Duchessa di Montejasi with Her Daughters, Elena and Camilla (about 1876); Vessel in the form of a hare (about 6400-5900 BC), possibly the oldest work of art in the MFA’s collection; a massive silver Cistern and Fountain (1708–09) marked by David Willaume I (British, about 1658–1741); Garrowby Hill (1998), a landscape painting by David Hockney; Head of a nobleman (“The Josephson Head”) (about 1878–1841 BC), one of the finest non- royal sculptures of the late Middle Kingdom; and one of the Museum’s most notable examples of Colonial craftsmanship, View of Boston Common (about 1750 ), an embroidery by Hannah Otis. The MFA also has become the recipient of many important collections during Rogers’ directorship, among them the Alan and Simone Hartman Collection of English Silver, the Leonard A. Lauder Collection of Japanese Postcards, the Kiyi and Edward M. Pflueger Collection of European ceramics, the Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Collection of contemporary craft, the Daphne Farago Collection of 20th-century studio jewelry, and archives of contemporary artists Michael Mazur and Jim Dine, and fashion designer Arnold Scaasi.

Rogers’ contributions to the international cultural community have garnered him numerous awards, among them:

• Commander, Order of the British Empire (CBE), given in 2003 by HM The Queen in recognition of his services to the arts in both the UK and the United States.

• Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters), presented to him
  in 2007 by the Ambassador of France to the United States, H.E. Pierre Vimont. The award, from France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, recognizes significant contributions to furthering the arts and letters in France and throughout the world.

• Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Commander of the Order to the Merit
  of the Italian Republic), one of the highest honors presented by the President of the Italian Republic, which was given to Rogers in 2009 for fostering cultural cooperation between the MFA and Italy by the Italian Ambassador to the USA, His Excellency Giovanni Castellaneta.