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Arts Administration

Sherri Geldin, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus

Nominated By: Karen Simonian, Advancement Projects Manager, Wexner Center for the Arts

Sherri Geldin was recruited to become Wexner Center director in 1993 after serving over a decade as associate director of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

Under her leadership, the Wexner Center has become one of the nation's foremost contemporary arts institutions, with a rich array of exhibitions, performances, film and video screenings, and public events. Geldin has overseen robust growth across all the center's arts and education programs, along with its staff and resources, more than doubling the annual budget and building the endowment to a current level of $25 million. She has consistently orchestrated engaging cultural experiences for audiences of different ages and backgrounds, with varying degrees of familiarity or affinity for contemporary art. At the same time, Geldin has carefully shaped the center's reputation for artistic rigor and its stature as a creative laboratory that encourages and supports the production of new work through in-depth artist residencies for emerging and established talents alike.

Geldin has reinforced the Wexner Center’s position as a physical and symbolic portal to The Ohio State University, linking “town to gown” through programs with both academic impact and broad public appeal. She has forged a wide range of successful collaborations with academic departments and student associations across campus, as well as with numerous civic, social, cultural and educational organizations throughout the Central Ohio community. In addition, she has pursued partnerships and program exchanges with highly respected museums, performing arts centers and film institutes across the U.S. and abroad. During her tenure, the center’s profile has grown considerably among cultural peers nationally and internationally, and has attracted coverage from leading publications and media networks near and far.

Geldin served nine years as trustee—two as chair—of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. She is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors, serves on the Columbus Cultural Leadership Consortium, and is a former Experience Columbus board member. In 2006, she was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Cultural Ministry.

Sherri Geldin video tribute (7:23 minutes)