{"id":21672,"date":"2025-07-24T23:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T23:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/21672\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T23:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T23:28:10","slug":"johanna-burton-departs-la-moca-to-lead-ica-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/21672\/","title":{"rendered":"Johanna Burton Departs LA MOCA to Lead ICA Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, which is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, has announced that its next director will be Johanna Burton<\/a>, the current director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Burton takes over the ICA\u2019s directorship from Zo\u00eb Ryan, who left the institution in January to lead LA\u2019s Hammer Museum. She will begin in her new role on November 1.<\/p>\n

\n\tBurton\u2019s move from MOCA to the ICA Philadelphia is somewhat unusual as it is a much smaller institution, in the nation\u2019s sixth largest city as opposed to its second largest. In a statement, Burton described the ICA as having a long history as \u201ca beacon for what\u2019s next\u2014prioritizing the emergent, the risk-taking, and the rigorously experimental\u2014and I\u2019ve long admired its role as both community anchor and hub for global discourse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\n\tShe continued, \u201cIn many ways, this appointment returns me to the kind of institution that first shaped my curatorial and academic sensibilities, a focused but deeply influential center for artistic innovation within a pedagogical setting. To step into this position at ICA at a moment when the possibilities for institutional and cultural impact are so pressing is a profound honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBurton joined MOCA in November 2021, after three years as executive director of the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. She was to work alongside Klaus Biesenbach, who had been the museum\u2019s director. The board had decided to split the directorship into two roles: executive director and artistic director, with Biesenbach assuming the latter position. But Biesenbach, who had been at MOCA for two years, announced his departure from the institution a week after Burton\u2019s hiring was announced, departing to lead two institutions in Berlin.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen she officially started, Burton assumed the title of director and she was worked to stabilize the museum\u2019s programming, which at the time was still recovering from the firing of chief curator Helen Molesworth and the subsequent departure of its director Philippe Vergne in 2018.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring her tenure, Burton stabilized the museum. She brought back its annual gala in 2022 after a three-year hiatus, which has raised around $3 million each of the past four years. She also helped secure a $1 million gift from the Chuck Lorre Family Foundation for its arts education program and the launch of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Environment and Art Prize, a biennial artist prize that comes with $100,000.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast summer, MOCA joined forces with the Hammer and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to share some 260 works from ARTnews Top 200 Collectors Jarl and Pamela Mohn for the newly formed MAC3 Collection. Additionally, she hired Clara Kim, a closely watched senior curator at Tate Modern in London, as its chief curator.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis past July, MOCA\u2019s board announced a leadership transition with president Carolyn Clark Powers becoming board chair, and Tim Disney, who joined in 2022, named as its new president. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy time at MOCA and in Los Angeles has been deeply meaningful,\u201d Burton added in her statement. \u201cI\u2019m proud of the institutional growth sustained during my tenure\u2014progress made possible through a spirit of close collaboration and shared purpose with the board and staff. The partnerships\u2014and friendships\u2014forged during this time remain among the most gratifying of my career and will continue to shape the ethos I carry forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement, ICA Philadelphia board chair Mark W. Strong said, \u201cJohanna brings a rare and powerful blend of curatorial vision, scholarly depth, and institutional vision. Her commitment to both artists and public engagement resonates powerfully with the ICA\u2019s mission. We\u2019re excited for this new partnership as we chart the next chapter of the ICA\u2019s groundbreaking and pioneering history.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, which is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, has announced that its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75,18023,18024,18025],"class_list":["post-21672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-institute-of-contemporary-art-philadelphia","tag-johanna-burton","tag-museum-of-contemporary-art-los-angeles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}