Tampa Museum gets new director

TAMPA - The Tampa Museum of Art named a new executive director today, a man who previously ran the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, S.C.

Todd D. Smith, at right, who begins work Oct. 6, will oversee the rise of a 66,000-square-foot facility in downtown Tampa, expected to open in October 2009. Smith, 42, replaces Ken Rollins, who retired from the museum in July.

"Todd brings a wealth of experience to the position,” board chairman Raymond E. Ifert said in a news release.

Museum trustees say they have big hopes for the new facility. They want national recognition, financial stability, a growing endowment, an expanded art collection and innovative programs.

In a news release, the museum said Smith accomplished much of that in South Carolina, where he also created the Elizabeth and Mallory Factor Prize, an annual cash award for southeastern artists. He has overseen museums in Knoxville, Tenn., and Fargo, N.D., and was a curator at the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, N.C.; The Dayton Art Institute in Dayton, Ohio; and the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind.

Smith is a candidate to receive a doctorate in art history from Indiana University, where he earned a master's degree in the same. He did his undergraduate work at Duke University. 

He said he was honored to be chosen to lead the Tampa museum "during a very exciting and important period."

"I look forward to building upon the successes of the museum and ushering in the opening of the museum's new home,” he said.

Attorney Edward M. Waller Jr. of Fowler White Boggs Banker P.A. chaired the search committee.

San Francisco architect Stanley Saitowitz designed Tampa's new museum, wrapping it in a shimmering pierced aluminum exterior. It will adjoin the redesigned Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park.

The museum is currently at an interim facility at 2306 N Howard Ave.

Times staff

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