Former curator named Krannert Art Museum director

By Melissa Mitchell

After two years without a permanent director, the UI's Krannert
Art Museum is operating under new leadership.

Maarten van de Guchte, who has served for the past year as
assistant to the director, was named to the post Aug. 1, pending
approval by the UI Board of Trustees today. He succeeds Stephen
Prokopoff, who left the university in 1992. The director's post
had been filled on an interim basis by Ted Zernich, director of
the UI's School of Art and Design.

The new director has been a member of the Krannert's curatorial
staff since 1991, and has been on the faculty of the UI's School
of Art and Design since 1992. A native of the Netherlands, van de
Guchte holds bachelor's degrees in law and art history, as well
as an advanced degree in art history from the University of
Amsterdam, Holland. He earned a doctorate in anthropology from
the UI in 1990.

The new director said the museum staff has planned a full
schedule of exhibitions and other activities for the 1994-95
academic year, and is continuing its efforts to increase the
museum's visibility locally and nationally.

"It's going to be an exciting year at the Krannert Art Museum,"
van de Guchte said. "We're opening strongly with an exhibition of
'outsider' - or 'naive' - art from the collection of Anthony
Petullo. At the same time, we are introducing a new series of
contemporary art featuring major artists such as Tom Otterness
and Vernon Fisher.

"And, as part of our mission as an academic art museum, we are
bringing in lesser-known and non-Western styles of art - for
instance, the engaging landscape paintings by Chinese artist Chen
Zhongsen," van de Guchte said. "Also, a major show of works by
contemporary ceramic artists will be featured later this fall.
Accompanying it will be a beautiful catalog by the well-known art
critic Donald Kuspit and art historian Nancy Weekly."