Brian Kennedy

Brian Patrick Kennedy (born 5 November 1961) is an Irish-born art museum director who has worked in Ireland and Australia, and now lives and works in the United States.

He received B.A. (1982), M.A. (1985) and PhD (1989) degrees from University College-Dublin, where he studied both art history and history.

He worked in the Irish Department of Education (1982), the European Commission, Brussels (1983), and in Ireland at the Chester Beatty Library (1983–85), Government Publications Office (1985–86), and Department of Finance (1986–89).

He married Mary Fiona Carlin in 1988.

He was Assistant Director at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin from 1989 to 1997.

He was Chair of the Irish Association of Art Historians from 1996 to 1997, and of the Council of Australian Art Museum Directors from 2001 to 2003.

In September 1997 he became Director of the National Gallery of Australia.

Kennedy expanded the traveling exhibitions and loans program throughout Australia, arranged for several major shows of Australian art abroad, increased the number of exhibitions at the museum itself and oversaw the development of an extensive multi-media site.

Although he oversaw several years of the museum's highest ever annual visitation, he discontinued the emphasis of his predecessor, Betty Churcher, on showing "blockbuster" exhibitions.

During his directorship, the NGA gained government support for improving the building and significant private donations and corporate sponsorship.

However, the initial design for the building proved controversial generating a public dispute with the original architect on moral rights grounds.

As a result, the project was not delivered during Dr Kennedy's tenure, with a significantly altered design completed some years later.

Private funding supported two acquisitions of British art, including David Hockney's A Bigger Grand Canyon in 1999, and Lucian Freud's After Cézanne in 2001.

Kennedy built on the established collections at the museum by acquiring the Holmgren-Spertus collection of Indonesian textiles; the Kenneth Tyler collection of editioned prints, screens, multiples and unique proofs; and the Australian Print Workshop Archive.

In November 1999, Kennedy cancelled the exhibition and stated that the events in New York had "obscured discussion of the artistic merit of the works of art".

He has said that it "was the toughest decision of my professional life, so far."

Kennedy was also repeatedly questioned on his management of a range of issues during the Australian Government's Senate Estimates process - particularly on the NGA's occupational health and safety record and concerns about the NGA's twenty-year-old air-conditioning system.

Kennedy's cancellation of the "Sensation exhibition" (scheduled at the NGA from 2 June 2000 to 13 August 2000) was controversial, and seen by some as censorship.

He claimed that the decision was due to the exhibition being "too close to the market" implying that a national cultural institution cannot exhibit the private collection of a speculative art investor.

However, there were other exhibitions at the NGA during his tenure, which could have raised similar concerns.

The exhibition featured the privately owned Young British Artists works belonging to Charles Saatchi and attracted large attendances in London and Brooklyn.

Its most controversial work was Chris Ofili's The Holy Virgin Mary, a painting which used elephant dung and was accused of being blasphemous.

The then-mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani, campaigned against the exhibition, claiming it was "Catholic-bashing" and an "aggressive, vicious, disgusting attack on religion."

Kennedy announced in 2002 that he would not seek extension of his contract beyond 2004, accepting a seven-year term as had his two predecessors.

The air-conditioning was finally renovated in 2003.

He became a joint Irish-Australian citizen in 2003.

The Toledo Museum of Art is known for its exceptional collections of European and American paintings and sculpture, glass, antiquities, artist books, Japanese prints and netsuke.

The museum offers free admission and is recognized for its historical leadership in the field of art education.

During his tenure, Kennedy has focused the museum's art education efforts on visual literacy, which he defines as "learning to read, understand and write visual language."

Initiatives have included baby and toddler tours, specialized training for all staff, docents, volunteers and the launch of a website, www.vislit.org.

He was the director of the Hood Museum of Art from 2005 to 2010, and the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra) from 1997 to 2004.

Brian Kennedy currently lives and works in the United States after leaving Australia in 2005 to direct the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.

He was the director of the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio from 2010 to 2019.

In October 2010 he became the ninth Director of the Toledo Museum of Art.

He was also notable for campaigning for the construction of a new "front" entrance to the Gallery, facing King Edward Terrace, which was completed in 2010 (see reference to the building project above).

Kennedy has been a frequent speaker on the topic, including 2010 and 2013 TEDx talks on visual and sensory literacy.

In November 2014, the museum hosted the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) conference, the first Museum to do so.

On 1 July 2019, he succeeded Dan Monroe as the executive director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum.

Kennedy was born in Dublin and attended Clonkeen College.

He was the director of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem for 17 months, resigning December 31, 2020.