Myriam Ben Salah announced as Executive Director and Chief Curator

The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago has announced the decision of appointing Myriam Ben Salah as the Executive Director and Chief Curator. She will take charge of the positions effective September 15, 2020. Ben Salah is a Tunisian Curator and writer. She is currently co-organizing Made in LA. 2020 at the Hammer Museum and The Huntington Library.

She follows Solveig Øvstebø who led the museum from 2013 until 2020 and will be the Ren’s third leader since 1973. President Richard Wright has welcomed Ben Salah on behalf of the Board of Directors. He said, “I welcome Myriam to Chicago and look forward to seeing her vision added to the legacy of the Renaissance Society. Thanks to Solveig’s leadership, an outstanding staff and board, and a clear-eyed commitment to our mission, the Ren has never been stronger as an institution. We are all excited to see how her curatorial work opens up exciting new spaces, shaping the Ren’s next chapter.”

Myriam Ben Salah has previously worked as curator of Special Projects and Public Programs at the Palais de Tokyo. She also served as the Editor-in-Chief of Kaleidoscope from 2016 until 2019. She is currently serving as Editor-at-Large. She has worked as an independent curator working internationally. She has organized numerous exhibitions and screenings at numerous institutions, including Jaou Tunis (Tunisia), Kunsthalle Stavanger (Norway), Fahrenheit (Los Angeles), Beirut Art Center and Kadist (Paris and San Francisco).

James Rondeau, President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago says, “I am eager to join the rest of the arts community in Chicago to welcome Myriam as a colleague and peer. Myriam’s attentive, bracing work across institutions, artist-run spaces and publications will allow the Renaissance Society to continue to grow as an exciting locus of the city’s creative thought.”

Ben Salah states, “I am truly honored to join the Renaissance Society and to follow in the footsteps of many esteemed colleagues. The Ren has had some of the most thoughtful and inspiring programming in the field. I look forward to charting a course among its rich history of experimentation and to be working with artists on their most radical projects, pushing the boundaries of what art can be and of what art can do.”