Zimmerli Chief Curator To Retire After More Than A Decade Of Engaging Exhibitions And Inspiring Leadership

The Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University—New Brunswick extends its gratitude and congratulations to Chief Curator Dr. Donna Gustafson, who will retire on Sept. 1, 2024. During her nearly two decades of service to the museum and the university, Gustafson's forward-thinking contributions to the Zimmerli reach far beyond the art and exhibitions that she put on display.

“I have enjoyed my work at the Zimmerli with my colleagues at the museum, the university, and especially the students at Rutgers who challenge us all to think differently and expansively,” said Gustafson, chief curator since 2022. “My departure is bittersweet, but I am looking forward to having time to work on projects that I have long put on hold.”

Gustafson embarked on her career at Rutgers University—New Brunswick in 2006, teaching an array of humanities courses. In 2011, she joined the Zimmerli as Curator of American Art and Mellon Director for Academic Programs. In the latter role, she led the next generation of museum workers, providing academic guidance and hands-on experience to students in the classroom and the galleries.

Gustafson curated more than 20 exhibitions that informed and inspired a broad range of audiences. She presented new perspectives of work by key artists in the Zimmerli's collections, including At/around/beyond: Fluxus at Rutgers; Polymorphic Sculpture: Leo Amino's Experiments in Three Dimensions; and George Segal: Themes and Variations. Gustafson also introduced artists through their first museum exhibitions, including Jesse Krimes: Apokaluptein 16389067 and (Rutgers alumnus) Alonzo Adams: A Griot's Vision. In addition, she collaborated with Rutgers colleagues to explore cross-disciplinary concepts of such subjects as Water (with Zimmerli curators); Striking Resemblance: The Changing Art of Portraiture (with Susan Sidlauskas in Art History); Subjective Objective: A Century of Social Documentary Photography (with Andres Zervigon in Art History); and Angela Davis: Seize the Time (with Gerry Beegan at Mason Gross), which traveled to the Oakland Museum of California.

Throughout her tenure, Gustafson strengthened the Zimmerli's Art of the Americas collection. Most recently, she renovated the gallery space with new lights, opening up the gallery to enhance the neo-classical architecture of the Kreeger Gallery, and refreshed the presentation to include contributions by artists from North, South and Central America, and the Caribbean to encourage viewers to see the Americas as a hemisphere linked by history and travel. In addition, Gustafson secured important acquisitions that included works by Coco Fusco, John Goodyear, Roberto Lugo, Renée Stout and multiple artists associated with the Fluxus movement. She expanded the photography collection, reflecting new scholarship about the medium, and added works by significant 20th-century and contemporary photographers Cornell Capa, Lee Friedlander, Irving Penn, Robin Schwartz, Yoland Skeete, Weegee and David Wojnarowicz. Gustafson worked with the Zimmerli's late director Tom Sokolowski and fellow Zimmerli curators to acquire the Jersey City Museum Collection, increasing the collection's diversity with important works by Emma Amos, Melvin Edwards, Freddy Rodriquez, Juan Sánchez and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, among many others.

Gustafson also served as Interim Director from 2020 to 2022, following the death of director Tom Sokolowski. She guided the Zimmerli through a dually difficult period, as staff faced a personal loss and the universally challenging onset of the pandemic. During the shutdown, she reorganized the museum's activities to retain staff by expanding digital outreach through creating a virtual museum. Upon reopening in 2021, Gustafson made the museum more accessible by extending public hours to better accommodate visitors' schedules and launching a more robust website. Supporting the museum's continued mission of providing equitable opportunities, she established the Student Guide Program to provide paid employment for Rutgers students and the first Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI) Committee, which includes staff and students. She also convened the first community council to encourage greater communication and collaboration between the museum and the city of New Brunswick. 

Gustafson holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Rutgers University. Prior to joining Rutgers, she held curatorial positions at the Hunterdon Museum of Art in Clinton, N.J., the American Federation of Arts in New York City, and was an independent curator and scholar.

“Donna Gustafson's contributions to the Zimmerli are immeasurable,” said Zimmerli director Maura Reilly. “The many stellar exhibitions she organized, acquisitions made and in her role as Interim Director, she leaves an indelible mark on the museum that will resonate for years to come. We wish Donna all the best in her next endeavors. She will be missed.”

ZIMMERLI ART MUSEUM | RUTGERS

The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum houses more than 60,000 works of art, with strengths in the Art of the Americas, Asian Art, European Art, Russian Art & Soviet Nonconformist Art, and Original Illustrations for Children's Literature. The permanent collections include works in all mediums, spanning from antiquity to the present day, providing representative examples of the museum's research and teaching message at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, which stands among America's highest-ranked, most diverse public research universities. Founded in 1766, as one of only nine colonial colleges established before the American Revolution, Rutgers is the nation's eighth-oldest institution of higher learning.

VISITOR INFORMATION

Admission is free to the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers. The museum is located at 71 Hamilton Street (at George Street) on the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick. The Zimmerli is a short walk from the NJ Transit train station in New Brunswick, midway between New York City and Philadelphia.

The Zimmerli Art Museum is open Wednesday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. The museum is closed Monday and Tuesday, as well as major holidays and the month of August. For the most current information, including safety protocols, parking, and accessibility, visit zimmerli.rutgers.edu.

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