Barbara Hunt McLanahan
Photo: Renée Riccardo
Barbara Lee Hunt McLanahan, the executive director of Childrens Museum of the Arts in New York, died last week aged 55 of pancreatic cancer.
McLanahan, who was born in Germany and grew up in Norfolk, had an “epiphany” that led to a career in the arts aged 15 on her first museum visit, a class trip to Tate Britain in London. “I was completely blown away,” she said of the experience in a 2015 interview withNew York Family. “It was the equivalent of a spiritual experience. We sat in this room and were looking at these paintings [by Mark Rothko] and just feeling so elated. I was like: This is it—Ive found it.” She added: “Thats what were trying to do at CMA—to give kids something that hopefully they can carry with them.”
McLanahan went on to study Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Kent as an undergraduate and also earned a postgraduate diploma in Gallery and Museum Studies at the University of Manchester. Her art world career began at Camerawork Gallery + Darkroom in London, where she worked from 1992-96. She moved to New York in 1997 and worked at Visual AIDS from 1997-2000, including serving as the executive director. She was the executive director of Artists Space from 2000-05 and then for the Judd Foundation from 2006-12.
“Barbara was a force of nature, an incredible spirit, and an important friend and mentor to many in our community,” the organisation said in a statement. “During her years as Executive Director of Visual AIDS, she stewarded the legacy of the organisation while propelling it into the future. She holds an important place in Visual AIDS history and in our hearts, and will be greatly missed.”
McLanahan, who was given the honour of Chevalier de LOrdre des Arts et des Lettres by the Republic of France in 2006 for her work, volunteering and activism in the arts, was a member of the Godzilla activist group of Asian American artists and curators in the 1990s. She was also on the board of organisations including the African and Asian Visual Artists Archive and the Leisure Services Committee of the Royal National Institute for the Blind and the Carmago Foundation in Cassis, France.
McLanahan joined the Childrens Museum of the Arts (CMA) as its executive director in 2013. “Her position as the Executive Director at CMA reflected her steadfast belief in the transformative power of art and commitment to making art accessible to all,” the museum said in a statement. During the first three years of her tenure, the number of undeRead More – Source
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