The Ben Uri Gallery has announced the appointment of Cathy Putz as its new executive director.
Putz succeeds David Glasser, who is stepping back as chief executive and will stay on as non-executive chair of the trustee board.
She will take the lead on delivering the museum's recently launched Digital Research and Dissemination Institute, which aims to record the Jewish, refugee and wide immigrant contribution to British society since 1900 while expanding the museum’s partnerships, nationally and internationally, through exhibition and collection loans.
The new research institute aims to build and expand the gallery’s existing Digital Research Unit, which focuses on the Jewish, refugee and the wide immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.
It is part of a wider strategic change underway at the museum. In 2020, in response to rising costs and a limited visitor reach, the organisation changed direction to take a digital-first approach, transforming into a hybrid virtual museum and research centre. It maintains a physical space in St John’s Wood, London.
Advertisement
Putz was previously the head of public engagement at the Courtauld and has held senior positions at Tate, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Gallery, the Brunel Museum and Derby Museums.
In a statement, the gallery said it was “delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Cathy Putz, FSRA, as our new executive director”.
Putz said in an announcement on LinkedIn: “As an internationalist who has made London her home, I'm delighted to share that I'm joining the Ben Uri Gallery and Research Unit as its new director.
“With over 110 years of work celebrating the contribution of migrant artists and makers to London and the UK, the Ben Uri is well placed to expand its programmes around cultural diversity and digital engagement, following its core principles of the dignity of difference and the equality of citizenship.
“I look forward to leading this innovative organisation into new international partnerships that show how art binds communities, and how memory and making interconnect to provide agency.
“We will work with our partners to grow our Digital Research Institute to record and share the wider refugee and immigrant contribution to British society since 1900, true to the great range and eclecticism of the Ben Uri in its origins.”
