Farnsworth museum to name new director

ROCKLAND – The Farnsworth Art Museum has been without a permanent director since May, when Christopher Crosman, who moved the museum into a new era of regional and local prominence, resigned. The museum’s board of directors is expected to announce Monday that Lora Urbanelli, a frequent visitor to Maine and an arts curator and administrator with 20 years’ experience, will take up the post in January.

Urbanelli, a native of Philadelphia, has been assistant director of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum in Providence since 1999. In the 1980s, she worked in the Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs at Yale University Art Gallery. She holds an undergraduate degree from Rutgers University and a master of fine arts degree from Syracuse University.

“The Farnsworth has so many wonderful qualities,” Urbanelli, 49, said Wednesday from her office at RISD. “The thing that attracted me was that it is an important regional museum and has a national reputation.”

Urbanelli expressed delight in particular over the strong relationship the museum has with the community and the organization’s 60th anniversary in 2008.

“The museum has an exciting board, community of artists and art lovers who want to see the collection flourish and grow,” she said.

In addition to her work at the museum, Urbanelli looks forward to taking advantage of the natural beauty of the state. She and her husband, a computer specialist at Brown University, are “real lovers of nature.” Maine has always been appealing because of that, she said. Combined with the state’s artistic traditions, Urbanelli said the prospect of living and working in Maine “couldn’t be beat.”

Earlier this month, Crosman, who was director of the Farnsworth for 17 years, accepted the position of chief curator at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. The museum, dedicated to American art, is scheduled to open in 2009, but Crosman will begin work next month.

“The whole Farnsworth board is very excited about Lori coming,” said board member Matthew Simmons. “Her background in Rhode Island fit the exact profile we were seeking. What is really nice about the whole thing is that Chris Crosman also got a perfect job for his outstanding skills at the Walton family new museum in Arkansas, so the ‘musical chairs’ seemed to work out as well as anyone could hope.”

The Farnsworth, a top museum in the region, draws up to 90,000 visitors each year to its collection of American art, with emphasis on Maine art and artists. The museum also is known for its major collection of works by N.C., Andrew and Jamie Wyeth.