Derrick Cartwright to lead Seattle Art Museum

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Derrick R. Cartwright, who has headed the San Diego Museum of Art since 2004, has been appointed director of the Seattle Art Museum. He will succeed Mimi Gates, who will end her 15-year tenure at the end of June.

Cartwright, a native of San Francisco who was educated at UC Berkeley, UCLA and the University of Michigan, is a scholar of North American art and architecture, 19th-century French art and the history of photography. Before taking charge of the San Diego institution, he directed the Musee d’Art Americain in Giverny, France, and the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.

In San Diego, Cartwright is credited with building the Balboa Park museum’s international reputation, reaching out to a diverse community and enhancing the exhibitions and publications programs. When he moves to the Northwest, he will oversee an urban cultural center with three locations: the Seattle Art Museum downtown, the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park and the Olympic Sculpture Park.

-- Suzanne Muchnic