PMoA’s Longest-Serving Executive Director To Leave the Museum This Summer

Monday, March 7, 2011  • News

Stetson Will Become Executive Director of the Hunter Museum in Tenn.

Executive Director Daniel E. Stetson has announced that he is leaving Polk Museum of Art to become executive director of the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tenn. His last day at Polk Museum of Art will be May 31.

“I am so proud of having served as director of this wonderful Museum,” Stetson said. “Its place in the Central Florida community, the quality of its programs, its outstanding staff and board will forever be an inspiration to me. As the Museum has grown during my tenure here, so have I.”

Stetson joined Polk Museum of Art in September 1996, making him the Museum’s longest-serving executive director. Under his leadership, the Museum’s annual budget doubled and the value of the art collection more than doubled. He also led the Museum through the national reaccreditation process twice; worked to have the Museum named an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution; and spearheaded the very successful “More Than An Art Museum” capital campaign, which exceeded the $3.7 million goal and included renovation of the Museum Shop, a new roof on the building, and a new, electronic climate control system inside to protect the artworks.

He oversaw development and presentation of more than 250 exhibitions, and after two popular outdoor sculpture exhibitions, he helped start the “Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition,” now in its 11^th year and exhibited in Winter Haven. Last fall, he initiated the creation of “MayfaireFlorida: Festival of the Arts,” which will celebrate its inaugural year as a countywide arts festival later this spring.

Under his leadership, the Museum received the Central Florida Development Council’s Dick Pope Award in 2008 and the Downtown Lakeland Partnership’s Golden Swan Award in 2003.

Deanna Rhodes-Tanner, president of the Polk Museum of Art Board of Trustees, said: “I am, of course, saddened by Dan’s departure, but I’m also excited for him and the opportunity he has been given. I’ve been on the Board for seven years and have known Dan for a long time, and I certainly wish him well in Chattanooga.”

Over the last 14½ years, Stetson has been a leader in the arts world and in the community. Last year, he became the first art museum director to be named president of the Florida Association of Museums. He also is in his second year as president of the Florida Art Museum Directors Association. He serves as a national accreditation site reviewer for the American Association of Museums and has served on numerous grant panels for the Florida Arts Council. He also served as a juror for art festivals in cities around Florida, including shows in Tampa, Lake Wales, Jupiter and Daytona Beach.

Locally, he was involved since the founding of both Lakeland Vision and Polk Vision, for which he currently serves on the steering committee. He is president of the Downtown Lakeland Partnership, which awarded him the Dudley Uphoff Award in 2008, and was a past president of the Friends of the Library. He is a founding board member of Polk Arts Alliance and a past president of the Cultural Arts Board. He served 13 years on the Harrison School of the Arts Advisory Board. He is a graduate of Leadership Lakeland Class XV, Leadership Polk Class I and the Regional Leadership Academy Class I. In 2003, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the University of South Florida.

Stetson is a native of Oneida, N.Y., and holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from SUNY Potsdam and a master of fine arts from Syracuse University.

Rhodes-Tanner will appoint a search committee of Trustees to begin a national search immediately. She said she hopes to have a new director on board in the fall.