The Newark Museum of Art (NMOA) in New Jersey has named Lisa Funderburke as its next director and CEO, beginning February 1. She succeeds Linda C. Harrison, who departed seven months ago after six years in the role.
Funderburke comes to NMOA, which has a collection of 300,000 objects with strong holdings in Tibetan art and an annual operating budget just shy of $19 million in 2023, from a much smaller organization, the Artist Communities Alliance. That nonprofit, based in Providence, Rhode Island, focuses on supporting artists and artist residencies both in the US and internationally. During her nearly a decade-long tenure, she helped grow the organization’s operating budget to $2.5 million, according to the New York Times.
Prior to the Artist Communities Alliance, Funderburke served as associate director of McColl Center for Art + Innovation and as director of the Charlotte Nature Museum, both in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the McColl Center, she focused on “organizational strategy, fundraising, and public programming at the intersection of contemporary art, community engagement, and ecology,” according to a release.
Peter Englot, the museum’s board chair, told the Times that Funderburke was selected from a pool of several dozen candidates via a nationwide search. “Lisa brings to the museum unique breadth and depth of experience as a museum and arts leader,” he said in a statement, adding that he and the search committee “are of one mind that Lisa’s innovative approach and creative ideation are truly unmatched. She has infectious enthusiasm and energy, and we’re confident in her ability to strengthen the museum’s foundations, bringing equal parts visionary, strategic, and practical thinking to propel NMOA as New Jersey’s greatest art museum and a best-in-class museum nationally.”
Last year, NMOA completed a $2.5 million renovation of its Learning & Engagement Center, a 6,000-square-foot space that first opened in 1990. The museum’s campus is also part of a $100 million development project called Museum Parc that includes 250 mixed-income apartments in two buildings, as well as a 4,500-square-foot gallery space, according to Real Estate NJ. It is expected to be completed in early 2027.
In a statement, Funderburke said, “Museums are most vital when they are responsive, collaborative, and deeply connected to the communities they serve. Throughout my career, I have seen how cultural institutions function as essential civic infrastructure. I am excited to work with the Newark community and broader networks of artists and partners to position the museum as a leader in national and global conversations about art, science, and cultural exchange—stewarding the museum as a shared public space for learning, creativity, and dialogue.”
Earlier this week, ARTnews pointed out the sheer number of museum director jobs across the United States that are currently open or soon will be (with no successor named), from the New Museum in New York to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. One of these slots was filled on Tuesday, when NYU’s Grey Art Museum appointed Alison Weaver to the directorship.
