Jeremy M. Mikolajczak has been named chief executive officer of the Tucson Museum of Art. He succeeds Robert Knight, who retired in January after 10 years at the helm.
Mikolajczak has been head of Miami Dade College’s Museum of Art + Design for four years. He and his wife, Ana Tello, plan a road trip across the country and they’ll land in Tucson shortly before he begins the job in April.
Tucson’s size, the museum’s staff, the docent program and the community were all factors in his decision to join the TMA, Mikolajczak said in a phone interview Monday.
“I love mid-sized cities and engaging with the community,” the 36-year-old said. “I knew it was a great fit from my initial conversations with the museum and from people I know who knew Tucson’s cultural community, the support of the museum, and the staff.”
Mikolajczak is taking over a 91-year-old museum with an operating budget of $3.3 million. Fundraising will be a key component of the job, but he has his eye on a much broader agenda.
“My first objective is to get the institution out there in the public persona, to get the profile of the institution in the conversation,” said Mikolajczak, whose salary will be $150,000.
He plans to increase attendance and membership, and to see the TMA become a “pacesetter in the community.”
Museums around the country struggle with shrinking audiences, he said. The TMA has a membership of 2,800, though attendance to galleries and educational programs in the 2014-15 fiscal year was 63,067. He hopes to boost those numbers through working with other cultural institutions in the city.
“One of the things we’ve found successful in Miami was establishing an extensive list of community partners,” he said. “That’s something I’ll bring with me. Partnerships bring in diverse audiences.”
He is also aware that younger audiences often shun museums, labeling them as “elitist.”
“We need to have a sense of inclusion,” he said. “For instance, in Miami, we’ve partnered with young musicians to draw unique audiences. There has to be new ways to look at museums, how they serve the community.”
TMA’s efforts to diversify its audience and reach out to the community are made a bit easier due its location in downtown Tucson.
“There’s a great energy and reinvestment in terms of bringing people downtown and creating a culturally rich and exciting community down there,” he said.
