 Ellsworth Brown
“This has been a grand and extremely
rewarding period in my personal and professional
life,” Ellsworth Brown said upon announcing
his decision to end his 11-year tenure as the president
of Carnegie Museums and Library of Pittsburgh. “I
leave knowing that the museums and library will always
thrive because they matter so much to so many.”
On
April 1, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and Carnegie
Library of Pittsburgh announced that Ellsworth
Brown had resigned his position as president of both
organizations
in order to pursue interests beyond Carnegie Museums
and Library and, possibly, outside Pittsburgh.
Brown came to Pittsburgh in 1993 after
an already prestigious career as a professor of history
and
a leader of numerous cultural organizations.
Formerly director of the Dacotah Prairie Museum and
then
the Tennessee State Museum, Brown became president
and
director of the Chicago Historical Society in
1981, a position he held for 12 years. He joined
Carnegie
Museums two years after the opening of Carnegie
Science Center and one year before the opening
of The Andy
Warhol Museum. During his tenure as president,
Carnegie Museums more than doubled its audience
reach—to
a high of 1.6 million people in 2002—through
focused marketing and exhibition planning.
“
I am so proud of what we accomplished over the past
11 years—bringing the city a new museum, and
more than doubling the reach of all four Carnegie
Museums,” Brown says. “That’s quite
an achievement for any institution.
“
But now, as Carnegie Museums embarks on an
institutional planning process that will
set its course for the
next decade and beyond, I believe it’s
time for a new leader to see this great institution
through
its next period of change and growth,” he
says. “It
is also time for me to realize new challenges,
which is always important to me.”
Suzy
Broadhurst, chair of the Carnegie Museums Board
of Trustees, has assumed the role of
interim president
at the Board’s request. “I’m
so honored to have worked beside Ellsworth,” Broadhurst
says. “His 11 years have been remarkably
full and productive, and on behalf of the staff,
volunteers,
donors, and members of Carnegie Museums, I
thank him for his dedication, service, and
friendship.”
An historian first and always,
Ellsworth Brown has always recognized the impact
that the arts
and sciences
have on the communities they serve, and over
the past decade he became one of the region’s
most active supporters of western Pennsylvania’s
cultural and economic redevelopment. Among
his many regional associations, Brown is a
board member of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance
and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development,
and a board member and a member of the Executive
Committee of the Riverlife Task Force. Nationally,
Brown is a member of the Smithsonian Council,
chairman of the Museum Association of Pennsylvania,
and a
member of the Executive Committee of the American
Association of Museums, for which he has held
numerous leadership posts, including president
(1990-1992).
“
Wherever I go,” Brown says, “I will always
consider myself not only an enthusiastic ambassador
for Carnegie Museums and Library, but also an ambassador
for this wonderful city and region.”
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