The Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio has hired Brooke A. Minto as its next executive director and CEO. She replaces Nannette Maciejunes, who retired at the end of 2022 after 20 years leading the museum. Minto’s first day at CMA will be May 15.
Minto is an arts administrator, art historian, and educator who most recently served as the inaugural executive director of the Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums, which was founded in summer 2020 as a way to create an intergenerational dialogue between museum trustees who are Black. Among its founding members are major collectors like Raymond J. McGuire, Pamela J. Joyner, AC Hudgins, Denise B. Gardner, Troy Carter, and Gabrielle Sulzberger.
Prior to the Black Trustee Alliance, Minto held senior leadership positions, primarily in development roles, at major institutions, including Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, the New Museum in New York, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Pérez Art Museum Miami. She has also served as a lecturer in art history at Florida International University in Miami.
“I am honored to lead an institution that is deeply embedded in its community, committed to positive social change and dedicated to nurturing creativity and imagination. I look forward to partnering with the staff, board and community to ensure that CMA remains a relevant and meaningful institution for generations to come,” Minto said in a statement.
In a statement, Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, which helped convene what would become the Black Trustee Alliance, said, “Over the course of her distinguished career, Brooke has demonstrated an exceptional ability to lead institutions in the right direction with a commitment to serving people and communities across the world. Her unwavering support of art and artists continues to inspire me, and I am certain she will leverage her decades of experience and love of the arts to bring the Columbus Museum of Art to new heights.”
Minto will be charged with leading a museum with a $13 million operating budget and a staff of 155 people. (Last year, a group of workers at the museum voted to unionize.) In a statement, CMA board president Pete Scantland, who led the search committee that selected Minto, called her “an inspiring, engaging and proven leader, who can immediately elevate the Columbus Museum of Art by every key measure – institutionally, curatorially, financially and reputationally.”
He continued, “Her expertise, natural curiosity, intuition and leadership acumen will all combine to simultaneously preserve our revered community-centric Museum and raise its international profile, prospects and impact.”