Artpace San Antonio announces new Executive Director Amada Cruz

08.14.12

San Antonio, TX - Artpace is pleased to announce that Amada Cruz has been appointed Executive Director. A search committee headed by Board of Directors Chairperson J. Travis Capps, Jr. announced that Cruz will assume her post in November 2012.

“Amada brings exceptional expertise gained from an impressive career spent working with some of the top contemporary art institutions in the United States,” says Capps. “Plus, she has long been a part of Artpace-as both an alumni curator who selected artists for Artpace’s core International Artist-in-Residence program and a former member of the Board of Directors. She has contributed to Artpace’s success in the past and will only serve to propel it into the future.”

Cruz’s career as a curator, director, and grantmaker spans more than 25 years. For the past seven years, she has been the Program Director at United States Artists (USA), an initiative of the Ford, Rockefeller, Prudential, and Rasmuson foundations, and the nations’ largest grant program for artists working in virtually all artistic disciplines. Prior to USA, from 2004-2006, she was the Executive Director of Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue, a New York-based non-profit that grew from its foundation as a single-donor initiative to a more broadly supported organization with grant programs for artists in specific cities across the country.

A recipient of the Peter Norton Family Foundation Curator’s Grant in 1994, Cruz was the Director of the Center for Curatorial Studies Museum at Bard College from 1998-2003. The Center encourages and explores experimental approaches to the presentation of contemporary visual arts, and Cruz also served on the curatorial studies program admissions committee. From 1995-1998, she worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, as Manilow Curator of Exhibitions and later as Acting Chief Curator, where she organized large exhibitions such as Cindy Sherman: Retrospective (1997). Additional curatorial appointments include the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, where she showcased the work of emerging artists, including Christian Marclay and Felix Gonzalez-Torres; the Lannan Museum in Lake Worth, Florida, where she held the positions of Assistant Director and Acting Director; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, New York.

Cruz has participated as a juror and advisor on numerous grant panels, including The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, New York, New York; National Endowment for the Arts, Washington DC; Los Angeles County Arts Commission, California; Public Art Fund, New York, New York; étant donnés: The French-American Fund for Contemporary Art, New York, New York; and the Bellagio Creative Arts Fellowship Program, Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy. She has published extensively, and is a contributor to many exhibition catalogues including Felix Gonzalez-Torres: America, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2007). She was one of 10 curators selected to write for Fresh Cream, Phaidon (2000), profiling emerging artists.

“Artpace’s commitment to artists is unparalleled,” states Cruz. “At its essence, Artpace provides artists an environment to dream, risk, and realize new works. I am looking forward to being a part of this world-renowned catalyst for artists, while actively engaging San Antonio audiences.”

“From her dynamism to her experience, Amada will be a key player in Artpace’s continuing success. She is the best person to lead Artpace into the future,” acknowledges Capps.

Cruz was born in Havana, Cuba, and is fluent in Spanish. A graduate of New York University, she is the founder of the Contemporary Curators Conference; has been a discussion leader for the Getty Foundation Multicultural Summer Internship Program; and was a member of the Professional Advisory Committee, Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies (1998-2002).

ABOUT ARTPACE
Artpace is a contemporary art center located in San Antonio, Texas, with residencies, exhibitions, and education programs that nurture the creative expression of emerging and established artists, while actively engaging youth and adult audiences. Renowned for its International Artist-in-Residence program, Artpace annually hosts three eight-week residencies, each of which features one Texas artist, one national artist, and one international artist, who are all selected by a notable guest curator, and culminates into an exhibition. The mission of this program is to provide artists with unparalleled resources that allow them to take time, seize provocative risks, and unveil new ideas. Founder and Director of Prospect New Orleans, Dan Cameron says, “Artpace is really head and shoulders above any other organization of its kind right now.” The work created at Artpace goes on to show at some of the world’s most distinguished venues, often presenting a pivotal moment in an artist’s career.

Artpace is located downtown at 445 North Main Avenue, between Savings and Martin streets, San Antonio, Texas. Free parking is available at 513 North Flores Street. Artpace is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 12-5pm, and by appointment. Admission is free.
© 2012 Artpace San Antonio

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org