David Ross
President of Artist Pension Trust, Ross became the world's first video curator at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York, in 1971. After three years of pioneering curatorial work there, he became a curator and Deputy Director of the Long Beach Museum of Art in 1975. There he spent three years working with IM Pei developing a plan for a new municipal museum.
Ross also conducted graduate seminars at the University of California-San Diego and at Irvine. From 1977 through 1982 Ross was Assistant Director for Collections and Programs and Chief Curator at the University Art Museum, Berkeley. While at UAM he taught the History of Video Art and Performance at the San Francisco Art Institute, while also serving on the Institute's Artist's Committee and Board of Trustees.
From 1982 through 1990 Ross was Director of Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art. During this time he also served as founding chair of the Federal Advisory Commission on Major International Exhibitions, co-founded the Contemporary Art Television Fund and taught a Senior Seminar on Contemporary Art at Harvard University. In 1991 He became the Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, where he served until 1998.
David Ross is widely known as a strong champion of contemporary art. He has organized over one hundred exhibitions of 20th century art, is widely published and has lectured at museums and universities around the world. Ross has been involved in the organization and maintenance process of major international exhibitions including Documenta, the Venice Biennale and The Carnegie International.
In 1998 he presented the keynote address at the conference "Video History: Making Connections," sponsored by the Experimental Television Center in partnership with the NYS Alliance for Arts Education. David Ross has served on policy and review panels at the National Endowment for the Arts since 1972. He is a member of the American Association of Museum Directors since 1981, an honorary member of the Board of Trustees of the ICA, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Tiffany Foundation since 1988 and presently serves on the Exhibitions Advisory Committee of the American Federation of the Arts.
Cite this record
"David Ross." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/david-ross.
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David Ross, President of Artist Pension Trust, was the world's first video curator at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York (1971) and later served as curator and Deputy Director at the Long Beach Museum of Art (1975), Assistant Director for Collections and Programs and Chief Curator at the University Art Museum, Berkeley (1977–1982), Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (1982–1990) and Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art (1991–1998). He organized over one hundred exhibitions of twentieth-century art, co-founded the Contemporary Art Television Fund and lectured and published widely. He participated in Documenta, the Venice Biennale and The Carnegie International, presented the 1998 keynote at the Video History: Making Connections conference and served on National Endowment for the Arts panels since 1972.
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Last modified 18 June 2011