Connie Wolf, who has directed the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco since 1999, was named the John and Jill Freidenrich Director of the Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. The appointment is effective at the beginning of 2012.
When Wolf arrived at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in 1999 from the Whitney Museum for American Art in New York City, the museum occupied a 2,500-square-foot building with six employees. In 2008 she opened a new 63,000-square-foot facility with 60 paid employees and a volunteer staff of 75. She raised over $85 million to support the museum.
In discussing her plans for the Cantor Center, Wolf stated that it was important that “the museum has a kind of relevance to how a younger generation connects to ideas.” But, she continued, “at the same time, nothing can replace the experience of looking at a piece of art.”
Wolf graduated from Stanford in 1981 with a degree in East Asian studies.