Alan Chong
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — A former curator of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston will be the next director of the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, N.H., the Currier’s board of trustees announced July 25.
Alan Chong currently is director of the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum in Singapore. He heads Singapore’s Cultural Academy and Curatorial Forum of the National Heritage Board, which oversees four national museums.
As curator at the Gardner from 1999 to 2010, Chong oversaw major exhibitions. In 2003, for the museum’s 100th anniversary, he took readers on a tour of the museum’s diverse collection, including Italian art and ancient Chinese sculpture, in “Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces From the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.’’ He also was the writer/editor of the Gardner’s collection catalog, “Furnishing a Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection of Italian Furniture’’ in 2011.
Before the Gardner, Chong was curator of European art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, and associate curator of paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
M. Christine Dwyer, president of the Currier board of trustees, said Chong “brings to the museum significant expertise in curatorial manners, operations and fundraising.’’
Chong called the Currier “a true cultural centerpiece of Manchester and the region.’’ The museum is home to works by Picasso, Matisse, Monet, O’Keeffe and others. It owns the Zimmerman House, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Raised in Hawaii, Dr Alan Chong received his Ph.D. in art history at the Institute of Fine Arts at the New York University and his undergraduate degree at the Yale University.
Chong starts Sept. 8. He succeeds Susan Strickler, who retired June 30 after holding the position since 1996.