St. Louis Art Museum appoints new deputy director to help guide collections, exhibitions

The new position, called the Emily Rauh Pulitzer Deputy Director and Chief Curator, was created through a $10 million endowment from museum trustee and former museum curator Emily Rauh Pulitzer.

Rivas, who begins the job in October, will have wide responsibilities. He will oversee the museum’s eight curatorial departments and its collection and exhibition departments. In a news release, the art museum said: 

“As one of his first priorities, he will also develop and lead the implementation of a master plan for the museum’s collection, aimed at identifying new areas for collecting and presenting art — and ensuring the museum is appropriately focused on engaging a new generation of visitors.”

The museum’s release included a statement from the director:

“We are excited to welcome Jorge Rivas to our team,” said Min Jung Kim, the Barbara B. Taylor Director of the museum. “His extensive and diverse range of experiences, along with his innovative approach to curatorial practice, will be invaluable as we continue to inspire and engage our diverse audiences through our collections and exhibitions.”

Rivas, born in Venezuela, was curator of Latin American art at the Denver Art Museum, where he directed the largest collection of Spanish colonial art in the United States, according to the news release. Before Denver, Rivas was an independent curator in New York and as an associate curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. From 1999 to 2013, he was the curator of Spanish colonial art for the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, working between New York and Caracas, Venezuela.

He holds a doctorate and master’s degree in decorative arts, design history and material culture from The Bard Graduate Center in New York. He also holds a master’s degree in industrial design from Università degli Studi di Firenze, in Italy, and an architecture degree from Universidad Central de Venezuela.