Kinghorn named senior executive director of cultural engagement and arts initiatives
George Kinghorn has been named senior executive director of cultural engagement and arts at the University of Maine. In addition to this three-year appointment, he also will continue to serve as director and curator of UMaine’s Zillman Art Museum.
Kinghorn will collaborate with Danny Williams, executive director of the Collins Center for the Arts, and Gretchen Faulkner, director of the Hudson Museum, to coordinate overall vision, leadership and operation of the cultural units. The goal is to enhance UMaine’s leadership as a regional and statewide cultural hub, and advance community engagement and fundraising efforts to meet the cultural units’ short- and long-term objectives.
Promoting the visual and performing arts on campus also is key, including increasing student engagement to ensure that arts and culture are an integral component of the university experience. Kinghorn will collaborate with UMaine’s arts-related academic departments and the newly formed UMaine Arts Initiative, which Kinghorn co-chairs.
“UMaine cultural resources contribute to experiential learning, promote dialogues in diversity and build community,” says UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy. “Through arts and cultural engagement, patrons of all ages cultivate what we hope will be a lifelong, enriching appreciation for arts and culture. I look forward to the opportunity to take our cultural engagement and arts initiatives to the next level.”
Kinghorn has led the Zillman Art Museum since 2008. Under his leadership, the museum has expanded educational and exhibition offerings, including the recent construction of five new galleries, and public participation has more than doubled. In addition, the museum has added important contemporary works to the permanent collection and has implemented new art conservation initiatives.