{"id":611598,"date":"2026-09-01T21:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T21:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/611598\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T21:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T21:48:09","slug":"edouard-kopp-named-director-of-the-johnson-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/611598\/","title":{"rendered":"Edouard Kopp named director of the Johnson Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

He will begin his role as the Richard J. Schwartz Director on Nov. 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his seven years at the Menil Drawing Institute, part of The Menil Collection, Kopp oversaw administration, exhibitions, educational outreach and a collection of artwork from the 16th century to the present day. Prior to 2017, he held curatorial roles at the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts and at The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEdouard has a deep understanding of a university museum\u2019s crucial role in teaching, research and public engagement,\u201d Provost Kavita Bala<\/a> said. \u201cHis commitment to expanding access to art, fostering interdisciplinary engagement and creating transformative experiences for audiences aligns closely with Cornell\u2019s mission.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kopp succeeds Jessica Levin Martinez, who joined the Corning Museum of Glass as president and executive director in February 2026. Ellen Avril, the Judith H. Stoikov Curator of Asian Art at the Johnson, has served as interim director.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring our conversations with Edouard, it was clear that he had experiences and had thought deeply about the things that Cornell values deeply, how the museum could continue to advance scholarship, interdisciplinary collaborations and community engagement,\u201d said Avery August<\/a>, Ph.D. \u201994, Cornell\u2019s deputy provost.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the Menil, Kopp secured $8 million in dedicated acquisition funds and managed major grants from the Getty, Luce and Warhol foundations. He also devised a collecting strategy that led to the acquisition of more than 600 drawings through gifts, bequests and purchases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Integrating university museums into academic life has been a throughline of Kopp\u2019s experience. He shaped the Menil Drawing Institute as a teaching laboratory, including partnerships with Rice University and the University of Houston, and at the Harvard Art Museums he collaborated with faculty and students to embed items in the museums\u2019 collections into curricula.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cVirtually everything the museum undertakes should begin with a question: How can we engage Cornell\u2019s students, faculty and staff?\u201d Kopp said. \u201cI am deeply honored to join the Johnson Museum and the Cornell community. I look forward to working with colleagues across the university to activate the collection as a dynamic resource for teaching, research and creative practice; make the museum an even more welcoming destination for the campus and wider community; and steward its extraordinary I. M. Pei building for future generations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kopp originally studied business, earning bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from the Grenoble Graduate School of Business in France, but his love of museums and their ability to inspire learning and conversations about art caused him to pivot. He then earned a master\u2019s degree in art history in 2001 and a Ph.D. in 2013, both from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He has published extensively on the history of drawing from the 18th to the 21st century and has organized major exhibitions in collaboration with institutions including the Albertina in Vienna, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, the Biblioth\u00e8que nationale de France, the Louvre, The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and The Art Institute of Chicago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cArt is an incredibly rich lens through which one can look at the world \u2013 the outside world, but also worlds within people,\u201d Kopp said. \u201cIt\u2019s something I love to share.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He will begin his role as the Richard J. Schwartz Director on Nov. 1.\u00a0 In his seven years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-611598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}